


Over The Black Line

by shamandalie (meridalocksley)



Series: Vis A Vis & El Oasis [8]
Category: Vis a Vis | Locked In (Spain TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a happy ending?, Bisexuality, But not the way they hoped, Choices, Dark(er) Maca still being soft, Escape, Established Relationship, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Locked up again, Love, Mother-Daughter Relationships, On the run again, Or going out with a bang?, Separated because of objevtive reasons, Soft(er) Zulema going dark again?, The first chapter is meant to create a frame to the rest. This will get darker, They will be reunited soon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:33:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25330174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridalocksley/pseuds/shamandalie
Summary: 🔶️El Oasis "Season 3" (post-canon, alternative timeline)🔶️Maca is framed and in jail once again. Zulema tries to help her escape. Will they succeed? Or will it get worse?This is a continuation ofOn The Other Shore, set 4 years later.(It can be read without having read OTOS too, the few details you just have to know are mentioned in the notes, because of possible spoilers for the previous fic.)
Relationships: Antonio Hierro/Zulema Zahir (briefly), Macarena Ferreiro/Estefanía "Rizos" Kabila (very briefly), Macarena Ferreiro/Fabio Martínez León (very briefly), Zulema Zahir/Macarena Ferreiro
Series: Vis A Vis & El Oasis [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747813
Comments: 257
Kudos: 160





	1. Quicksand

**Author's Note:**

> I was hesitant to continue OTOS, I was thinking about writing a fic totally unrelated to what I've written so far, but it felt so weird to start from scratch after I've built their story up for "such a long time", so I decided to do this after all.
> 
> So this is a continuation, set 4 years later, when shit goes down.
> 
> It can be read without having read OTOS too, you just have to know that Maca has a 5 year old daughter, who was living with Zulema and Maca, who've basically become a couple along the way, without them truly realizing it. And they've cooperated with Castillo, and sort of became friends with him along the way.

Maca stepped into the living room and threw herself onto the couch, forcing Zulema who now put down the book she was reading to pull up her legs, the little girl who was playing with a dog ran to her, jumped on her lap to give her a kiss, being followed by the four legged swinging his tail, then she jumped back down and continued running around with her furred friend.

The kid was a hurricane, an energy-bomb, smart but reckless and pawky. Maca had no idea whom she got all that from, but most of it surely not from her.

She didn't know her father well. It was a one night stand, and there was a huge conflict between them later, when the guy, Daniel, who was a lawyer, forced Maca to give her daughter up so that he can raise her. He did so for a year, but then he messed up something regarding a dubious case and got arrested for four years. He also got a divorce soon after that. With the help of his then wife Maca eventually managed to regain the full custody of her daughter. But she always suspected that Daniel didn't sign the papers out of his own free will.

She blinked at Zulema. Collected, calm, content, reading a book and staying with her daughter while she was out. _How delusive!_ Someone looking at them would say that they were a relatively normal family. They weren't. Neither a family, and especially not normal.

Three days ago while shooting in their garden as a form of meditation, Zulema accidentally almost shot their dog when she noticed Maca and Hope nearby. She was as panicked as all of them, Zulema loved that beast, more than Maca did. That led to a fight because she was not supposed to use guns around the child. Her defense was that she couldn't know that they will be back earlier. And things like this happened regularily. 

And about the family part... for some reason they just insisted to remain two independent people deciding to stick together despite the ups and downs, a blonde who for a long time had no idea what she truly wanted other than a normal family and found herself settling down with a criminal and becoming a thief herself, and a brunette who always knew what she wanted, freedom and an eccentric life, and found herself settling down with a blonde and her 5 year old daughter, because... that was strange enough in itself. They were not considering theselves a couple either, at least they never really put any labels on themselves. It's been long years, and they've still been in denial. But only regarding this one aspect, regarding everything else they were playing with entirely open cards.

One would ask what was the point of pretending to be just a scandalous duo with benefits raising a kid together just because they were living under the same roof and not call themselves a family? Because it was safer this way. And also more intriguing. They liked a twist in the games they played. And life was a game for them, why should they play it by rules set by others?

"How was the parent's meeting going?" Zulema asked. 

Maca tilted her head and looked at the brunette with a reproachful look. "The teacher was asking me why my daughter when asked to draw her favourite animal drew a scorpion, while all her peers, drew cats and dogs and birds and butterflies..."

"Well, be glad that she stands out." Zulema said cheerfully. 

Maca gave her a judgemental look.

"What?" the brunette shrugged her shoulders with an annoyed expression. "I don't even know why you're implying that this has anything to do with me... Maybe she just likes them." she shook her head and wanted to get back to her book.

Maca rolled her eyes and stood up. "You're a bad influence on her. But we might have more concerning issues than drawings right now. There was a black van with two guys in it on the corner when I left. They are still there." 

Zulema frowned. "Why would anyone spy on us? We haven't done anything wrong in the past years. Well, except for those perfectly planned and successful little robberies we basically did instead of going to bowling on weekends. They might be just simply parking there." Zulema doubted her own words. She stepped to the window, then turned back to Maca. "When was Daniel supposed to be released?" she asked pondering. She couldn't think of anyone else holding a grudge on them. Holding a grudge on Maca, to be more specific. Daniel met Zulema just once, and he wasn't aware that they know each other.

"Three or four weeks ago, but what does that have to do..." Maca froze for a second. "No! That can't be!" she shook her head. Maca was thinking about an angry jewlery-store owner or something among those lines, but not this.

There was a knock on the door. Zulema blinked at the van. It was empty.

She considered the possible scenarios and their chances in the blink of an eye, Maca did the same, and they must have reached the same conclusion. Maca was quicker to say it out loud.

"Get Hope out of here!" she said. "They saw me entering the house, if I disappear I just tell them that I ran away with her, and they wouldn't stop until they'll find us. I'll talk to them." she whispered to Zulema, then she knelt down near her daughter and hugged her tightly kissing her cheek again. "I love you. You will go on a ride with Zuzu now, mommy has to talk with someone, all right?" she caressed her face, then she turned back towards Zulema.

Another knock on the door.

"You have to get her out of here. Now! This way you'll have time to disappear with her. Go! Please..." Maca rarely asked anything from Zulema. But when she did it was either a cold message telling her to buy something or a desperate pleading to help her keep her life together, there was almost no middle-ground.

Zulema nodded. She reached into a drawer, grabbed a gun, stepped to the girl, said something to her, held her hand and dragged her after herself towards the back door which led to the garden.

"Take care of her." Maca said with a tear in her eye. There was something upsetting in the way she said it, it sounded like a farewell. Zulema didn't like the sound of it.

"I will. And you too. See you later!" she gave her an encouraging smile and disappeared with the girl and the yapping Scorpius after them. 

She helped the girl get into the trailer which was parking at the end of their garden, near a small forest-road, and quickly jumped in after her.

"Where are we going? And why is mommy not coming?" Hope asked. 

Zulema took a deep breath. Then she crouched near her and looked in the girl's dark brown eyes. Their colour was nothing like Maca's, but their shape was. Her hair was dark blonde, getting darker and darker as the time passed. "Listen to me, Punkin. Mommy had to choose between not being able to see you ever again, or to stay away from you for a short time. She could not bear the first option, so she chose the latter."

"But why did she have to choose?" the girl asked. Zulema shook her head biting her lip. _Kids and their questions..._

"Do you remember that game we used to play?" she asked smiling at her and took the child's hands in hers. "When we pretended that we are not who we are and you had to be convincing?" The girl nodded.

They had some controversial parenting habits, but considering who they were, they saw it as necessary.

"We'll play that now, ok? If we'll meet anyone, we'll act as if I'd be your mommy. You'll call me like that too. Can you do that? It will be fun!" she looked at her being totally unconvinced about all she got herself into, but keeping the appearance of cheerfulness.

"That's a boring game..." the little girl pouted. Zulema looked at her with an impatient look while trying to kickstart the engine. "I call you Zuzu, but you're my mommy too, no?" the girl continued, looking innocently at Zulema.

Zulema's hand stopped in the air as she was turning the keys. "Of course." She smiled at her. "Then forget the game, just call me like that from now on, ok? And for the game part maybe say that your daddy is... working abroad."

Hope gave her a quick nod. "Look! Scorpius came after us. Can she come with us too? Please!" 

Zulema shook her head smiling. "Why not? He's at home everywhere after all..." She opened the door to let the dog in, then she stepped on the gear, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. 

As she drove through the road leading up the hill she looked back on their house which was now far below them. She noticed the sunlight reflecting on blonde locks as a woman was forced to get into a black van. 

"Look, Punkin, a fox!" Zulema pointed into the opposite direction.

"Where?" the girl jumped to the window.

"Oh, it ran away... Cunning creature and fast, you have to outsmart him to get a glimpse of him." Zulema added, as they disappeared behind a corner, leaving their home behind them and out of sight.

"I can do that." Hope said confidently and straightened up in her seat. "I'll tell him I have the moon, then he'll come to me." she said as if it would be the easiest thing on earth.

Zulema blinked at her from the corner of her eye, silently giving her a loving, and slightly concerned smile.

_You'll grow up to be a piece of work too, little monster..._

* * *

It felt like ages until Castillo finally answered his phone. Zulema lit a cigarette and gazed at the little girl nibbling a sandwich. It was one thing taking care of a kid together with Maca, but she had no clear idea at this point what she'll do on her own. A reckless, kind of ex-criminal on the road in a trailer with a five year old and an adopted stray dog. That sounded absurd enough for a bad movie.

"Zulema! Sorry, I was leading an interrogation. I haven't heard from you for quite some time, what-" hearing Castillo's voice never felt more reassuring to Zulema.

"This won't be a nice chat, Inspector." she interrupted him "I need your help."

.

It took Castillo almost two weeks to find out something about Maca, and Zulema would have found that out too one day later, when her phone rang. It was an unknown number, but one which looked familiar. In a really disturbing way. 

"I'm locked up, Zulema!" she heard Maca's desperate voice. "He fucking framed me for some shit! He said he'll do it if I don't tell her where Hope is, and he did it! He is determined to take her away from me again! He is her father, and he might not be bad one, despite everything, look at me after all... but he wants to totally destroy me!" 

"Calm down, Maca, I'll get you out of there!" Zulema tried to sound calm, but she wasn't. She had no idea how she could do that in the first place.

"How? He's playing on higher grounds then where Castillo can reach." 

"We'll find a way. I promise." 

.

Almost a month later she was sitting on the top of a hill, looking down at the cold, grey building in the middle of the vivid green grass. Massive, dark fences were separating the two like an ugly black line separating the real world from a shrivelling hell which sucks the life out of you. A line no one would voluntarily cross. Just from the inside out, of course. 

This was the closest she got to visiting Maca during these weeks. The last time their names were associated was almost five years ago, regarding a heist, and Zulema wanted it to stay like that.

"Would you be ok with Saray taking care of Punkin for a while until I make a short trip to move some strings to get you out of there?" Zulema asked while they were talking on the phone. It was a formality. Everything was prepared already. "We visited them these days. They got along well."

"Yeah... sure." Maca said after a short hesitation. "But please prioritize her safety, not mine!"

"I'm doing that." Zulema said seriously. "Be a good girl in there, don't do anything stupid." she added. 

"You neither."

"I can't promise that, blondie." Zulema said with a faint smile on her face and the call was cut. Their time was up.

Zulema blew out the smoke and gazed nervously at the building.

"I hope that you are aware that I am risking my career and maybe also my freedom with helping you." Castillo stepped behind her, also smoking a cigar.

"And I am very grateful for that... But in the first place you're helping her with this, not me." Zulema said without looking at him. 

"Well if you are willing to go through with this, the least I can do is to admit that I am willing to help you too." Castillo sighed. "I was doomed the moment I started to care about you two..." 

"That's the charm we have." Zulema said trying to sound joking, but she wasn't in the mood. "Thank you." she added more seriously, and finally looking at him. 

The man nodded. "Do you have any guarantee that this will work?" 

"No." Zulema said briefly, and threw away the cigarette stub. "But it better will, because if not, we are all fucked. For good." she smiled at him pressing her lips together into a thin line.

Then she shook the nervousness and uncertainty off herself, and replaced it with a confident, sly, almost excited expression, which gave Castillo the creeps because this was the same woman looking at him now whom he was hopelessly chasing, and with whom he was playing a dangerous cat and mouse game for years. And this time he was both the cat, and a mouse.

"Let the play begin!" Zulema whispered.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #1 The reason why I made them once again kind of deny that they are a couple/a family despite knowing that they love each other is because I want to keep something of the old tension between them. I hope that makes sense, haha.
> 
> #2 I am not exactly happy with the name Hope/Esperanza. When I came up with it in the previous part of this, I wasn't planning to bring her back, but here we are... So I made Zulema give her random nicknames. 😋


	2. A shoulder to lean on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a while I wanted this to be the first chapter, so a big part of it was written before the previous one, but I felt like I won't be able to explain stuff along the way properly, so I added the other one too. 
> 
> Note in the note: I re-read the first chapter the day after I posted it, and damn, it had so many typos! I'm sorry! I corrected it. (I am not going to do my last edit after midnight on a work day, from my phone ever again.)
> 
> I hope you'll like this chapter! ~~You're gonna hate it.~~

_It was Maca's first night in jail. She was laying on her side on the bottom bunk bed, eyes closed, tears running down her cheek._ _"Hey, calm down." a deep, calming voice said to her and a hand reached down towards her from the bed above. "You can hold my hand if it makes you feel better."_ _Maca hesitantly reached out and held the hand reached towards her. The touch felt familiar, but she couldn't recognize it. "_ _Welcome to hell." the woman continued on a colder voice while soothingly running her thumb over the back of her hand. "I"ll be honest with you. The first night isn't the worst. It never gets better. On the contrary. But you'll get used to it. I'll teach you to get used to it."_

 _Maca's eyes instantly opened. Where did the soothing tone of this woman's voice disappear? And why did she suddenly feel attacked? The hold on her hand got tighter, Maca wanted to pull her hand away, but she couldn't. She managed to free it only when the woman jumped off the bed, and sat down near her, putting a hand across Maca's waist, making it unable for her to get away, and looked straight into her face, shoulder-length black hair framing her face, green eyes_ _scanning her, assessing her, and Maca almost felt physical pain just by the power this woman had over her without even touching her at all. Then suddenly she remembered her, at least she remembered how she felt about her: She hated her from the bottom of her heart. She wanted to push her away, but the more intensely she pushed the closer they got to each other, feeling each other's breath on their skin, limbs entwined, their proximity being threatening, suffocating, torrid, and in the same time attractive, pleasant, comforting. And Maca found herself stopping to resist. On the contrary, she suddenly kissed her instead of fighting her, running her hands through her dark hair, pulling her closer, not minding the teeth biting into her lip, nor the nails scratching her skin, and it almost felt the same: pleasant, torrid, suffocating, threatening. She pulled away._ _The woman didn't do anything._ _She was just leaning over her, a silent presence, unable to escape from, and she didn't even want to escape anymore, she started to feel safe. And then the other woman slowly ran her fingers over cheek, gently caressing her face. She wanted to touch her too, but she couldn't reach her, and the more she tried to approach her again, the further away she seemed to be, until she got up from the bed and Maca saw her leaning her back against the bars of the cell, her chin raised, an indecipherable smile on her face."If I ever end up in jail again, don't try to get me out of there." she said and turned away from her. "I wouldn't do it for you."_

 _"Mommy!" a weak voice cried out from behind her, the brunette stepped away, and Maca saw her daughter desperately clinging into the bars._ _And in the next moment the dark haired woman was somehow on the other side of the bars, picking up her daughter. "Isn't this ironic? I have the fate of your child in my hands, blondie. Again." she said with emphasis. "Aren't you afraid that the scorpion will poison her?" she asked with a smirk and placed a rough kiss on the child's cheek. The little girl laughed and looked towards Maca, an eyesore little line underneath one of her eyes, like a sketchy tear tattooed on the child's face._

 _Maca let out a cry as she ran towards the bars, now her being the one clinging into them, but the two disappeared. She only gazed out on the empty, dim corridor, and_ _her cell suddenly felt darker, and colder, and more threatening than before, until she felt like she's falling into a dark emptiness, disappearing in the void, getting forgotten. Or worse. Not even ending up remembered in the first place._

 _"How could you fall that low?" a voice asked her._ _When? Maca wanted to ask back, but she didn't have the strength to do it.  
_

* * *

She woke up covered in sweat, breathing heavily, laying on her back on the top bunk bed. She took a deep breath trying to calm her heartbeat. It took a couple of moments until she separated the dream from reality _. I trusted Zulema with my daughter. I trust her. I am not afraid of her. I am not hating her._ _I..._ This last thing felt so out of place right now. Since she stepped into this building flashbacks started to invade her, and her biggest fears came to the surface. But she stopped focusing on her doubts, and the most dominant feeling which took their place now wasn't better either. It was fury. There was only one thing circling in her thoughts. _If I ever get out of here, I am going to kill Daniel._ She was angry. At him. At the world. Surprisingly, not on herself. This time not. And this made it worse. Because she felt capable of revenge more than ever before.

"How could you fall that low?" Maca opened her eyes when she heard a familiar voice. "Jewelry was one thing, but drugs? Seriously?"

"Rizos!" Maca sat up being surprised and was welcomed by a cascade of a curly hair as the the girl hugged her.

"They talked about a blonde newbie who is not exactly a newbie. It made me curious." the girl said cheerfully.

"Was it Zulema who got you here?" she asked when they let go of each other. "I would have bet that your little association with her will be your primrose path to hell..." she said sharply.

Maca shook her head and blinked at her, pulling a bit away. "What? Wait.. how do you know about all that at all?" she frowned.

"Newspapers, you silly?" Rizos rolled her eyes. "Friends passing by saying things? I haven't heard about you two for quite some time though... So I assumed you either killed each other or stopped working together. But seriously, Maca? Zulema?" 

Maca started to be annoyed. "Stop. First of all it is not her because of whom I ended up here again. Secondly... " Maca changed her mind mid-sentence and closed her mouth. "Look... this has nothing to do with Zulema."

Rizos sat down near her. "I don't care who brought you back here. I am glad you are here." she said smiling at her, and made an attempt to hold her hand, but Maca pulled it away.

"That sounds sick, Rizos!" She immediately regretted her move. It was not a wise thing to reject probably the only person who would willingly be her friend in there, but she didn't want to play this game again now. "I am glad to see you too." she said and smiled at her trying to save the situation.

"You don't look much like it." the other said with a bitter smile.

"Well... I'd probably look happier had we met at a café or somewhere, you know..." Maca sighed.

Rizos patted her shoulder and stepped closer to her, pushing a lock of hair out of Maca's face. She was getting too close. Maca stepped away from her.

"Are we going to play once again the "I am not into woman" game?" Rizos sighed. "'Cause I'm in." she said with a determined smile.

"No. We are not going to play anything." Maca said firmly. "I... I have a family out there." she said.

Rizos nodded with a sad look on her face. "I am not going to be the one to ruin that." she was about to turn her back on her.

"But I could use a friend." Maca said.

Rizos started laughing. "Did you just friendzone me?" the girl shook her head, then looked at Maca with a mischievous smile. "We can try how that works out." she shrugged. "Who is this guy that you are so faithful to him? A CEO? A surgeon? A lawyer? How old is the kid?" 

"Rizos... I don't want to..." Maca bit her lip and shook her head. She didn't want to hurt her unnecessarily. "My daughter is five. And he is... he is a she, and she is a..." Maca realized only now that she has no idea what fake occupation she could come up for Zulema. "She's a cop." she said finally.

Rizos laughed once again, this time bitterly. "You seem to like contrasts. Not much could top that. Maybe if you had hooked up with Zulema back in your heist days... Now that would top it!" she added mockingly without other remarks. "So she'll get you out of here soon enough, I guess." 

"Who?" Maca realized that her thoughts were scattered. "I am not sure she can do that." 

"Then she must be an awful cop. Or an awful lover." Rizos grinned. "What's her name?" she asked randomly.

"Alicia." Maca lied.

"Age?"

"32."

"Younger than you... Nice." Rizos added sharply. "Hair colour?"

"What the hell?! Ginger red."

"Where did you meet?"

Maca hesitated. Too much.

"Come on, you can't instantly recall the place you met the love of your life?" Rizos shook her head. "You are lying. I think you are alone like all of us when we get out of here. And you can't admit that, so you're coming up with-"

Maca suddenly grabbed her throat and pushed her against the wall. "Who the hell do you think you are that you keep questioning me as if you'd have authority over my personal life?!" She was as surprised by her move as the curly haired girl was. Her grasp on her throat was tighter than she intended it to be. If she intended to do this at all. "Sorry." she said and let go of her.

Rizos ran her hand over her neck and gave Maca a scornful grin. "Really, Maca?" The blonde didn't say anything. Rizos kept looking at her with disbelief. "You must have spent a lot of time with Zulema..." she said with a judgemental look. "You are not the girl you used to be."

"And I am glad that I am not. That girl was far too naive. And scared." 

"She was also kind." Rizos added. Maca just stared at her, she had no idea what she could have said.

"Kabila, you have one minute, then get back to your cell. Lights out!" a guard said loudly as she passed by them.

"It's not really your first night here..." Rizos looked at Maca with disdain "So I won't give you the nice talk. You know the drill." she said coldly and turned her back on the blonde.

The second day was almost as bad as the first. And the third too, and soon the days became a blur. Only a few days stood out, the ones when Zulema called her and she shared a couple words with her and with her daughter, and the few days when Castillo visited her, trying to reassure her that everything will be all right. _Empty words. He can't do much for me._

She barely talked with anyone else in the first weeks. The stories about the last time she was there reared their heads and people did not bother her much. She sort of had a prestige in there. One which offered some safety and peace for her, but one which she did not use for absolutely anything. She had no hope that she'll get out of there anytime soon, if ever.

* * *

Zulema was a tired mess. She spent half of her time taking care of a reckless child, and in the other half trying to plan an impossible escape. Or doing both at the same time. Fortunately, this little monster was a bit more composed when she was with her than when Maca was around. The plan was a sketch, with far too many pitfalls. She got the blueprint of the prison from Castillo. She crumpled another scrabbled version of it and angrily threw it away. It landed on the floor joining a dozen of other abandoned versions of it. Zulema rubbed her forehead and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Why are you angry?" Hope looked at her. The girl was drawing on the other side of the table. "Is your homework too hard?"

Zulema blinked at her. "Yes." she said. "Actually... It is not even _my_ homework. I am working on... someone else's..."

"That's not correct." the girl shook her head.

Zulema raised an eyebrow looking at her. "Well... yeah. You're right." she nodded. "That's cheating. Which is bad." she kept nodding but internally she rolled her eyes. "But... sometimes helping someone you care about tops what is considered right." she said. Then she bit into her tongue. _If this girl grows up to be anything better than a scammer, we succeeded as parents..._

"There's no way she'll ever be able to do it on her own..." Zulema shook her head. "It's a dead end... We are too far from her to be able to truly help her..." she said, talking more to herself than the kid.

"Then get closer to her." the girl said offhandedly and grabbed a different coloured pencil to continue her drawing.

Zulema let out a bitter laugh at the answer. "Yeah, if that would be possible it would be a lot easier! But..." she looked at the girl pondering. She was already completely focusing on drawing, she probably forgot her answer already and wasn't even listening to what Zulema was saying. Then the solution occurred to Zulema. She found the last missing puzzle piece. She stood up, and wrapped her arms around the child. "You are a smart little punkin." she said and quickly kissed her forehead and hurried to grab her phone.

.

"Gitana?"

"Zule?" Saray's voice in the phone was surprised. "I haven't heard from you for... years! Since the time you stopped working with the blonde and moved from that shitty trailer. When was that? Three years ago?"

"Five." Zulema corrected her. "But a reason for that was also that you moved farther away, and then barely-" Then they slowly stopped calling each other. They rarely met since they were out of jail anyway. Saray wanted safety and a normal life for her family, something what surprised Zulema, but after she rejected her proposal to team up and work together, she stopped seeking her company. Not because she resented her. Well, maybe a bit she did, for a while, but she mainly did it because she respected her wish and didn't want to get her involved into her messed up life. Now she had not much of a choice. She needed her help. And she hoped that her empathy for a mother will be stronger than her empathy for an estranged best friend with whom they've hurt each other in unspeakable ways. They got past that, but those wounds don't just disappear.

"Gosh, time flies..." Saray sighed. "But what do you want, Zulema? You never call anyone for a chat."

"A friend." the answer came. "I need a friend."

.

"Have you completely lost your mind?!" Saray looked at Zulema when she finished telling her about the past years and about her current plan. _Most likely... yes._ Zulema thought. They were sitting by a small kitchen table, in a small kitchen, in a small house. Saray's home wasn't grandiose, but it really felt like a home. Her daughter, Estrella went out with Hope to the garden to show her their cats.

"When?" Zulema asked smiling calmly at her.

Saray shook her head laughing. "At least you're conscious about it." she nodded with appreciation.

"So would you do that for me? Would you take care of this little monster until I come back?" Zulema repeated the question she asked a while ago.

"Until you...? Zule... I'm... You're... If this doesn't go as you planned... Are you even aware of what you are asking from me?!" Saray looked at her being seriously concerned.

"Yes. I am completely aware of what I am asking from you." Zulema said firmly. "And I would totally understand if you would say no. But I am really, _really_ hoping, that you won't do that." she reached out a hand above the table to hold Saray's.

"This is emotional manipulation, Zulema..." Saray said tilting her head.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that too." the brunette rolled her eyes and pulled back her hand. "Let's do it the genuine way then..." she sighed. "Gitana, _please_... help me with this. There's no other way that I can do this." 

Saray looked at Zulema with a scanning gaze, then she shook her head. "You, know... This is the last thing I expected you to ever do. The second to last thing actually. The last is that you are doing it for her." she looked at her with disbelief in he eyes, then she slowly nodded. "All right, I'll do it."

Zulema smiled at her and squeezed her hand once again. _Here we go... Stupid decision, number two._

"Break a leg!" Saray sighed.

* * *

Weeks have passed, and for Maca behind the bars not much has changed. She still avoided people, she was not in the mood to talk to them, especially not about why she was there or about her life. She started to understand why Zulema became so closed off and cold. When the only people who show attention to you do it just to throw your past mistakes into your face has that result. She was also a bit angry at her, because she never came in to visit her. She said it would be unwise, but she gave no more explanations.

One day she was sitting outside with Rizos, both of them smoking. Maca was looking in front of herself apathetically. Rizos gave up on asking her about her life, probably she thought it doesn't matter anyway since they were locked up in there, and she was the one near her after all, not that hypothetical family.

"Do you even think about getting out of here?" she asked.

"Please stop bringing that up... It's bad enough without talking about it." Maca said with a bitter expression.

"Then let's make the time in here better." Rizos smiled at her. "What's the point of not allowing yourself a bit of... joy?" she asked and put a hand on Maca's arm. Maca didn't pull away this time.

"Joy? In here?" Maca laughed. In the next moment she felt Rizos's lips softly touching hers. It felt nice, calming. Any kind of genuine affection in there was a precious and rare ray of sunshine. She hasn't kissed anyone else other than Zulema for a long time. The moment she realized that she was kissing her back, she pulled away.

"I can't. I'm sorry." she shook her head, looking at Rizos.

"Damn it..." the other shook her head. "Do you really have a cop girlfriend out there?"

Maca nodded. "But you fall for every helpless newbie, I am sure you won't get bored, Rizos!" Maca said jokingly.

Rizos sighed and got up from the ground. "Whatever... Just please don't tell me that you have a handcuff kink. Let's go get our lunch or we'll end up with the leftovers..."

.

The guards changed along the weeks, and one day, almost a month later she bumped into someone she neither thought she will, nor did she wish to encounter in there again. "Macarena?" Fabio stepped near her once when she was walking towards her cell.

"Hi." she said neutrally and wanted to walk further, but the man grabbed her arm. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked on a concerned voice.

"My time." Maca looked at him coldly.

"What happened to you? What did you do again?" he insisted.

"I got framed." Maca said still keeping the indifferent tone. "I'm not in the mood to talk..."

"Yeah... you always get framed. We believed that once, but... Seriously, Macarena?" 

"Stay away from me Fabio. I don't want your judgement, nor your help, nor your pity, I want nothing from you!" she said on a weary voice. "I am not a princess who needs to be saved! Get over this annoying habit of yours!" Saying this felt hypoctritical now. Because she actually wanted someone to get her out of there. She was a victim, but she didn't want to act like one.

"Why do you keep pushing away everyone who cares abut you?" Fabio asked with genuine disappointment in her voice. "I loved you."

Maca stared back at him shaking her head. "Well... I didn't." she said calmly. "I was just glad to have someone on my side, Fabio. And I might have had a tiny crush on you, yeah, because which damsel in distress would not have one on her knight in shining armor, but... I am not that girl anymore." she said finally. "And I am not pushing everyone away. I do have a good life out there. I do have people I love and who love me. And yes, I indeed got framed, whether you believe it or not. I have not ruined my life, not in these past years!" 

"No. Because you ruined theirs. Are they waiting for you to go back to them or are they glad that you are away from them?" Fabio looked at her with disdain.

Maca raised her hand to slap him, but she restrained herself clenching her jaw. "Leave me alone, Fabio! Please." she said quietly.

"I've told you... You keep saying that. And you'll end up being alone, Maca. Is there anyone left out there who would risk anything or at least move a finger to get you out of here?" Fabio asked looking at her almost with pity in his eyes.

Maca didn't have the time to react because there was a noise coming from the end of the corridor. She peeked into the direction of it and noticed that a new prisoner was brought to one of the nearby cells. A tall woman dressed in yellow being led by two guards, her long dark hair held into a low and loose ponytail, two locks of hair shadowing her face. _No..._ She caught her gaze for a moment and the blood froze in her veins. The woman looked back at her with no readable emotion on her face. Only a small, almost unnoticeable movement appeared in the corner of her lips for a fraction of a moment, what only Maca recognized as being a restrained smile, then she disappeared behind the bars.

"Be careful Macarena." she heard Fabio's voice. "If she'll want to kill you, you have no knight in shining armor to keep an eye on you day and night."

Maca didn't even notice when he left, she was still looking into the direction of the cell in which Zulema disappeared.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Rectification:_ I changed the name Maca used as her fake girlfriend's name, she's Alicia now, not Lana. The change is not relevant, but since I made her ginger and a cop, I just realized that it can be a LCDP reference this way. 😁 You might not care about it at all, but I found the coincidence too cool to not go with it.


	3. Endure the silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♬ Chapter title borrowed from this song ⇒ [Link](https://youtu.be/9m4JLwiCtQ4). I've never attached a song to a chapter before but I'll do it now.  
> Check it out, it is a truly awesome song from a Tunisian metal band named Myrath, and it screams earlier Zurena! ❤♬  
> 

Maca walked towards Zulema's cell. Slowly, hesitantly, dreading the answers she could get for the questions teeming in her mind. She didn't even know what she felt. She didn't even know what she thought. _What the hell could have went wrong?_ She pushed a couple of girls out of her way and stopped in front of the cell. Zulema was sitting on a bed, twiddling her thumbs, her back against a wall, her legs hanging lazily. She raised her glance to look at Maca, and slowly shook her head then nodded towards the corridor, signaling her to walk away. But Maca was too disturbed to understand it. She needed answers. So she stepped into the cell and stopped in front of Zulema, for a short while just staring at her. She still had no idea what she felt. _Shock? Disappointment? Anger? Pity?_ It was a cocktail of emotions, dominated by a complete loss of hope. She shook her head.

"What the hell did you do?! What the hell did go wrong?!" she grabbed Zulema's yellow shirt and made her stand up to face her properly. Maca was trembling. It was weird to see Zulema this way after all those years. Behind the bars, dressed in yellow, her face unreadable, cold, arrogant. Just like when she met her. Flashbacks hit Maca again, now more vividly. _I did actually end up loving that woman. No, not that woman. Or yes?_ _  
_

"Nothing." the brunette whispered. "Haven't you had a visitor today?"

Maca frowned at her. "No. Who?"

"Damn it..." Zulema sighed and angrily ran her fingers through her hair, fixing the loose ponytail. "Never mind. You'll have one. And you'll get the answers soon. Don't expect them from me now, we shouldn't even talk! But don't worry, everything is ok. I have a plan." she whispered. "Stay away from me for now. And trust me."

"Trust you?! Plan?!" Maca almost snapped, she was once again grabbing her shirt and pulling on it. "You had a plan out there too! Apparently it was a plan to make everything WORSE!" she roughly let go of Zulema just to push her further away. "I TRUSTED you with my daughter! Where is she now?!"

"Calm down! We'll get out of here!" Zulema was still whispering. "And your daughter is with Saray, I've told you. She's safe."

"Safe?! With the woman who got your daughter killed?" Maca raised her eyebrow.

There was a wild flash in Zulema's eyes for a moment. "I also killed a child of yours, blondie. She at least did not directly intend to kill mine. Don't have double standards, sweetie." she said impatiently as she stepped back closer to her.

"Whatever..." Maca clenched her jaw. "You said that you are going away for a couple of days! DAYS! Not ending up HERE!" Maca was more and more furious as the time passed, she once again pushed Zulema away from herself, the brunette losing her balance fell back on the bed. She stood up quickly, firmly grabbing Maca's hands.

"Stop shouting and trying to hit me! I said _trust me._ " she repeated quietly, and while still holding Maca's wrists she pulled the blonde closer to herself so that they were cheek to cheek. Maca felt her breath on her skin. She was angry at her, yet the proximity still felt comforting. "Did I give you any reason lately not to trust me?" she asked. When she felt that Maca became less tense, she let go of her hands.

"I hate you." Maca whispered shaking her head. Then she wrapped her arms around Zulema holding her into a tight embrace burying her face into the brunette's shoulder. "I hate you so much right now, that you have no idea..." A part of her was glad that she was around, as bad as that sounded.

Zulema was the one pushing her away now. She heard the voice of a guard approaching on the corridor. "Macarena? Ferreiro where are you?" It was Fabio. The brunette rolled her eyes impatiently.

"They can't see us chatting." Zulema said desperately. "And especially not hugging. Hit me!"

"What?" Maca frowned.

"Hit me! You said you hate me, it won't be hard." Zulema gave her a little smile which if it hadn't already been hard enough, it would have made it hard. "Come on, and make it look real!" she urged her.

"No." Maca stepped back from her.

"For god's sake, you sentimental idiot!" Zulema whispered, then she slapped her, strong enough that a thin line of blood appeared in the corner of Maca's lips. 

"Zahir! You've been here five minutes and you're already causing trouble?" Fabio stepped into the cell.

"This one here won't leave me alone." Zulema said coldly nodding with her head towards Maca.

"I'm fine." Maca said. "We just..."

"...I just owed her a slap. And it's been a long time. My palm was itching." Zulema grinned. "But now it's better." she shrugged her shoulders. "I'll be good. I promise." she smiled ironically as she stepped closer to Fabio, almost whispering the words into his ear as she passed by him. "Just make her go away from my cell, I can't bear seeing her face around!" she added more loudly.

"She'll go away. You have a visitor." Fabio turned towards Maca. "Apparently there is still someone out there who cares about you. Who would have thought?" Fabio said to the walls.

Maca blinked at Zulema, the brunette showed no reaction. She felt irritated, and stupid, it annoyed her that no one told her anything and she was just supposed to go with the flow. But in the same time she started to feel something what she didn't in the past month: That she has a chance. She wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth, then she gave the brunette an angry look and left.

Fabio slowly turned towards Zulema. The woman stopped grinning at him. "What?! Aren't you happy to see me again?" she asked with a grimace. "Me neither." she added and turned her back on him, then she silently laid down on her bed. "These mattraces are still shit." she sighed and closed her eyes. "I would not mind if you'd go away too. I don't like it when people watch me sleep. It's creepy." she said calmly. Fabio didn't say anything, he just walked away.

* * *

"Why did you come?" Maca looked at Castillo. "You didn't even answer your phone when I called you!" _I couldn't, phones in here are not safe to talk. Talking here isn't completely safe either._

"I couldn't. But I am here now. I arrested Zulema." he looked straight into Maca's eyes. " _I_ caught her trying to rob a watch store. So-"

Maca laughed. "Seriously? Robbing? A watch store? Now?" Maca didn't even know if she was amused or deeply hurt.

Castillo ignored her struggle. He made a quick motion with his hands between his mouth and his ear, and Maca understood that he's trying to tell her that there could be microphones around them, so they can't talk directly. "What I am telling you is that she's probably already here and I just wanted to remind you to be careful with her."

"Yeah... She's here." she laughed bitterly. "Look at me... She already punched me in the face."

Castillo frowned. "As I said, stay away from her." he repeated and leaned closer to Maca across the table. "You didn't go on separate paths on good terms when you stopped working together five years ago. Don't try to reconcile with her." he added then he stood up and was about to leave. Maca understood that he was trying to tell her not to reveal that they are in good terms. _But why?_ "But also keep an eye on her, if you notice that she plots to escape, tell me about it. Because I have a feeling that she doesn't want to stay here for long. Like usually..."

"That's all?" Maca asked, being confused and slightly disappointed. Castillo realized that the blonde still didn't see the big picture. He sat back on the chair and looked Maca in the eye.

"Macarena, _I_ caught Zulema around that store. With _evidence_." he continued. "It was _my_ duty to arrest her. It's not my fault that she ended up on the same corridor with _you_. All I can do for you is to warn you to... _stay away_ from her, and find out how she wants to _escape,_ if it's the case." he repeated the story, carefully choosing his words. He thought Maca will understand things more quickly. "She does stupid things sometimes too. And stupid things usually lead her here. In a way or _another_."

 _No, Zulema wouldn't do a robbery on her own._ Maca thought. _Something doesn't make sense... And she's a professional, she doesn't leave lazy evidence, so that Castillo will have to-... No! You're not talking about her messed up robbery, are you? No... it's not your fault that she ended up here. It's a favour of yours! What the hell have you done, you idiots?!_

"What more than this do you want, for god's sake?" Castillo asked. He sounded insulted or impatient, Maca couldn't tell. "And she always tries something to get out, it wouldn't be a surprise, and we are tired of putting extra effort in it, so if you notice something..."

Maca's jaw dropped. This thought seemed so impossible to Maca that she wasn't even considering it as an option. It didn't even cross her mind. Now that she understood what was going on she wanted to slap Castillo and ask him how on earth could he agree to this madness, but she couldn't do that. She silently shook her head with disbelief, letting out a silent " _No_..."

"Take care, Macarena." Castillo stood up and was about to walk away, again.

"If this..." Maca wanted to ask something, but she didn't know how to do it without giving things away. She bit her lip. She went with the simplest way. "If she doesn't succeed to escape, that bitch will never get out of here again, will she?" she asked trying to sound scornful but she had tears in her eyes.

Castillo was pondering for a moment. "I'll do everything in my power to make sure that that bitch gets what she deserves." he said finally. "Don't worry about her. Worry about yourself." he said firmly giving Maca a reassuring smile and left, leaving the blonde alone by the table with her thoughts.

* * *

Maca has barely seen Zulema for the rest of the day. She had no idea what exactly Zulema was up to, especially not while she was on her own. During lunch and dinner she was sitting in the other side of the place. Maca felt really weird, awkward even. She would have wanted to talk to her. She wanted to hit her, she wanted to scream in her face telling her how crazy she is. And in the same time she wanted to let her know how thankful she is to her. Although she was angrier. At least that's what she thought. But she didn't want to jeopardize everything what Zulema was risking while trying to get her out of here. She gave up the most important thing for her to help her after all. Her freedom.

The next day also passed like this. In the evening they were both in the laundry room, along with some other prisoners. Maca was trying to catch her glance, but whenever it happened Zulema either turned away from her or gave her an irritated look. She finished what she had to do and ignoring Zulema, was about to leave the place, but the brunette stood in her way in front of the door.

"That sheet there looks like someone was dancing samba on it. Iron it until there's no unwanted crease in it." she said quietly.

Maca raised an eyebrow and let out a frustrated sigh, then she went back to the sheets, grabbed one, and started ironing it halfheartedly. _Who the hell are you to give such orders to me?! I didn't allow you to talk to me like this and we've lived under the same roof for years!_ She blinked at Zulema, the brunette was smiling. She couldn't restrain a smile either.

When all the other woman left the place and they remained on their own, Zulema peeked out to the corridor to make sure that that everyone left.

When she stepped back to Maca, the blonde grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against a wall. "You call this a plan?! You imbecile, stupid idiot!"

"That's a really unnecessary pleonasm, blondie." Zulema smiled at her.

"You kept telling me not to try getting you out of jail if you end up here again!" she said desperately.

"We never talked about what if it happens the other way around." Zulema shrugged.

"You're out of your mind!" Maca shook her head angrily and let go of the brunette. She was attacking her, if she would thank her she'd just end up wrapping her arms around her again while tears would be running down her cheek. And Zulema wouldn't want that now. The tears were already gathering in her eyes anyway.

"Yeah... I guess I am. But you also said that if I'd end up in jail, you'd surely be rotting in there with me, so..." Zulema shrugged. "Hi!"

Maca let out a laugh, and a tear ran down her cheek.

"Oh god, don't get sentimental again..." Zulema made a grimace. "No one can know that we are..." Zulema was looking for the right word but she was struggling to find it. Maca looked at her being amused. "Partners... in... everything." she finally finished that sentence with much effort and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Nothing related to your escape can lead back to me." she said more seriously. "That's important."

Maca looked at her frowning. " _My_ escape? What about you?"

"Only one of us can get out with my plan." Zulema said calmly.

"What?!" Maca looked at her being shocked. "Are you really a complete idiot?!"

"Relax... It's not like I gave up my freedom to get you out of here." she rolled her eyes and was trying to sound tough. "I came with a two-way ticket thanks to our good friend. I'm going out on the front door." Zulema smirked. "But that means that I have to be a good girl in here, so... There are rules. Again." she shrugged with a half disappointed, half mischievous smile. "And it doesn't hurt if at least one of us won't be a fugitive if there's a possibility for that anyway."

Maca was a tiny bit relieved. "Thank you." she whispered while looking at Zulema.

"Thank me when we're out." Zulema reached into her pocket and handed her a piece of paper with a sketch and some text on it. "Take a walk towards that place marked there. Get familiar with it. I mentioned there what you should be attentive to. Don't be conspicious." she said looking at Maca as she examined the paper.

The blonde nodded.

"We'll talk again when you're done with that. You'll be out of here until the end of next week." Zulema gave her a confident smile. "And I'm sorry that I slapped you. But I had to. You were being annoying." she added jokingly then she was about to turn away from her, but Maca reached after her and grabbed her arm, pulling her back towards herself.

"You've done worse than that to me." she said on a neutral tone, then she kissed her. Briefly and desperately, but passionately. "I love you." she said when she pulled away. 

"I know." Zulema smiled at her. In another context this would have sounded arrogant and cold, but in that moment Maca was anything but insecure.

"Ginger. And a cop." a judgemental voice said from the direction of the door. They quickly let go of each other and both turned towards its source. Rizos looked at them with wide open eyes, eyebrows raised, her mouth slightly open. "That description was so accurate..." she said mockingly.

Zulema made an instinctive move to jump towards the girl, but Maca held her back.

"Since when were you there?" the brunette asked angrily. 

"Long enough." Rizos said coldly. Then she started laughing, bitterly. "Seriously... I can't say that this didn't cross my mind at all when I read about you two, but I never would have thought that you actually... Wow... And if that's why you hesitated to kiss me..." she blinked at Maca. "Whatever." she shook her head. "Go on with it, I'm out of here. I just came because Emilia forgot her shirt here and she has a sore leg." she stepped into the room, grabbed the shirt and turned around, walking away from them.

Zulema looked at Maca, being alarmed.

The blonde hurried after the girl, she caught up with her in the middle of the corridor and stood in her way. "Rizos..."

"Now I get it why you didn't like me enough." the girl laughed bitterly. "You like it rough, don't you?" she grinned.

"Cut the crap!" Maca snapped angrily.

The girl gave her a tired look. "What do you want? You want me to keep your dirty little secret so that it doesn't affect your escape?" 

Maca clenched her jaw. "Yeah. Yeah, actually that's what I want." she nodded. "Rizos, please... I have a daughter out there. _We_ have a daughter out there."

"Poor little thing..." Rizos pushed Maca away. "I'm disgusted by you." she said coldly. "But don't worry, your secret is safe with me." she sighed. "As I said, I won't be the one to ruin your perfect family. I just never would have guessed that it will be with her." she said ironically looking at Zulema who now has caught up with them too, then she walked away.

"Can we trust her?" the brunette asked. 

"I don't know." Maca was pondering as she looked after her. "Maybe."

"I don't like maybes." Zulema said.

Maca shook her head. "She kissed me." she said offhandedly then she looked at Zulema. 

The brunette shrugged. "She was always obsessed with you. Along with all the other newbies she gathered under her angel-wings..." she added rolling her eyes.

"I kissed her back." Maca said. "For a short while..."

Zulema raised an eyebrow then she shrugged it off once again. "Well, you can kiss whoever you want, it's not like we're married or anything. We never even agreed to be exclusive..."

_We just were._

"And I realized that I didn't want to kiss her." Maca continued. "I just wanted you to know, in case-"

Zulema let out a laugh. "Because you think I'm jealous? Come on, blondie, you know me better than that. I know _you_ better than that." she said confidently and gave Maca a smug smile when she passed near her. "Now let's get back to our cells before anyone else sees us. Go forward... I'll follow you in a couple of minutes..."

.

Maca hurried back to her cell. She ran into Fabio. Again. _For God's sake..._ Zulema was right. The less time they spent in each other's company the safer it was.

"Where were you?" he asked. "You were not in your cell."

"Are you stalking me now?!" Maca snapped, giving him a questioning look.

"No, I am not. I am a guard. In a prison. And you are a prisoner. Do I have to remind you of it?" there was anger in his voice.

"I was in the laudry-room. Ironing." Maca answered impatiently. "Let me go, if you wouldn't hinder me, I could already be in my cell."

"Almost everyone was back already." he insisted. "Except for three people. But I saw Kabila when she entered her cell. What took you so long?"

"Well, I am clumsy. I would have made an awful wife." she said cheekily and wanted to walk further but Fabio didn't let her. _Come on, let me go and go away from here, Zulema will be here in any moment now!_ And she was.

"Oh... look at the other roaming lady." he said mockingly and looked towards the end of the corridor behind Maca where Zulema now appeared from behind a corner. "Is she clumsy too?" Fabio turned back towards Maca, sarcastically raising an eyebrow.

Maca swallowed. "I have no fucking idea."

"Come, Zulema, this is the right direction." Fabio said reassuringly when she noticed that the other woman became hesitant.

"What do you want, handsome?" she asked insolently when she stepped near them. "Am I three minutes late, will I get a black point? She won't get one, I bet." she looked at Maca. "Everyone knows that you fancy her." she said maliciously.

Fabio ignored her remark. "Why is it that I keep finding you together if you hate each other so much?" he frowned.

"What makes you think that we were together?" Zulema laughed. "I just arrived here, you saw it." she said offhandedly. 

"Stop the bullshit, Zulema. If you are plotting something, I'll know about it." he said seriously. "Now get back to your cells!"

They did what he said, he looked after them suspiciously as they disappeared behind the corner.

When they were far enough from him, Zulema grabbed Maca's arm and leaned closer to her.

"Don't get me wrong, I am not jealous. But your exes are getting on my nerves." she said coldly. "And if either of them will mess with our plan, I am going to kill them."

.


	4. The plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this chapter was difficult to write, because I had the next one (which I am a lot more enthusiastic about!) almost completely thought out, but I needed a bridge to get there of course, so I needed to write this one instead. But somehow I managed to finish it, haha.
> 
> Thank you for all the lovely comments! It makes me so happy! ♥️

"You can't just kill people, Zulema!" Maca whispered the words as she was hurrying after the brunette on the empty corridor.

"Really?" Zulema looked back at her raising an eyebrow. "You are very aware that I can. And I would."

Maca stared at her shaking her head. Zulema made a step back towards her.

"I've told you that I function differently when I am locked up." she said bitterly. "I am in survival mode, and for me survival equals getting out of here. Do you care more about those two idiots than getting out of here?"

"I want to get out of here, but not at any price, Zulema. I am not like you." there was something in Maca's eyes, what Zulema hasn't seen in a long time. Worry, mixed with contempt, and a bit of fear. Of her?

Zulema didn't even show any reaction to her words. Through the years they've taken over habits from each other, too many in fact, but when it came about this, Maca was still nothing like Zulema. She has killed, when it was absolutely necessary, but she felt a lot worse about it than Zulema did. Or she was just more vocal about it. After everything she's done, Zulema learned to live together with her remorse, without needing any external redeeming solace. So she didn't even talk about it. And if she was truly honest with herself, she hoped that regarding this aspect, Maca will never become like her. She was doing fine in the past years, she managed to put her past behind and she was almost completely at peace with herself, but coming back to the jail made something click in her. It was like scraping an almost healed wound and making it bleed again.

"Let's don't jump so forward." Zulema sighed. "Nothing too bad has happened yet. So they're safe. For now. I've just warned you to not be too surprised if something happens." Zulema added offhandedly and walked further, leaving Maca behind, staring perplexed after her, as Zulema's dark figure was moving farther and farther away from her in the gloomy corridor.

.

In the next morning Rizos was sitting on a bench in the courtyard. Zulema sat down near her and handed her a cigarette.

The younger girl looked at her feeling insulted. "You don't have to buy me, neither to threaten or blackmail me. And if that would be the case, I assure you that a cigarette wouldn't suffice. But as I said, you don't have to worry about me." she said coldly and turned away from Zulema.

"I was merely offering you a cigarette." the latter rolled her eyes. "I don't know why people are looking for ulterior motives in everything." she lit the cigarette and started smoking it herself.

They were sitting in silence for a while. Then Rizos blinked at Zulema. "Do you need something?"

"I need a lot of things..." Zulema sighed as she blew out the smoke.

"Do you want me to do something for you?" the girl rolled her eyes. "Not that I'd be eager to, but you seem-"

"No." Zulema looked at her. "I just wanted to smoke the peace pipe with you. I don't intend to get into any trouble here this time. I don't need anything from you. Except for keeping your mouth shut."

"That is something." Rizos smirked, being slightly amused. She could make this difficult for Zulema. But she didn't want to bid defiance to someone like her. She valued her own safety more than a power play.

"So if you don't want the peace pipe..." Zulema shrugged her shoulders. She noticed Maca stepping out to the courtyard with one of her cell mates. "...then I'm not bothering you." she finished the sentence and was about to stand up.

"Do you love her?" Rizos asked suddenly while looking at Maca. "Or are you just using her? I heard her say the words, but not you. It seemed odd."

Zulema laughed. "And would it have changed anything had you heard me say them? You keep questioning even such a simple gesture as offering you a cigarette if it's coming from me." Zulema shook her head. "Come on, curly... How many times have you said those words? Did you really mean them all the time? Don't be so petty..." she stood up and headed into the opposite direction than the one from where Maca appeared.

.

Maca just came back from the walk Zulema advised her to take. It led to an abandoned storage room on the last floor of the building, with a tiny, barred window. If you peeked out on it you felt like you were standing on the rooftop, the place was higher than the rest of the prison, and if you fell, well... that was a really short way to get out of there. Permanently. Maca was seriously wondering whether this was really the most accessible way out, but she did not question Zulema's plan, at least she had one. If you managed to climb down without breaking your neck and without being spotted, you found yourself in the parking lot. It was still on the inside terrirory of the prison, but its gates opened once a day when trucks bringing food and other necessary items arrived. If in a couple of days Maca will succeed to get into one of those trucks, one with a fake licence plate, she'll be out. Fortunately there were still people out there who owed Zulema and agreed to play a driver for a couple of hours. And then in the next days Castillo will get Zulema out of the jail too.

They still had to remove the bars from the window without being noticed, which was a challenge in itself. The corridor the room was on was rarely attended by prisoners, they had nothing to do there, unless they got lost on their way back from the hospital wing. So Maca saw the plan as potentially functional, but they could very easily be spotted. Zulema said she'll handle the cameras while Maca will have to climb down and until she is safely out, but until then?

The blonde looked around the courtyard. Zulema was smoking in the other corner of it. Rizos sitting on a bench, Fabio approaching her. _Come on guys, don't make this worse than it is... For your own good. And mine._

.

"Can I ask you a couple of questions?" Fabio looked at Rizos when he occupied Zulema's empty place.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Do I have a choice?"

"You were back late last evening. Do you know what Macarena and Zulema were up to?" the guard asked directly.

"Up to? Seriously?" Rizos laughed and shook her head. "Why are you asking?" _Don't tell me you're jealous too..._

"I have a feeling that they are planning something."

Rizos blinked into the direction where Zulema left, she caught the brunette's piercing gaze. Then she blinked towards Maca who was chatting with her cell mate, a moment later she looked in their direction and her expression became serious. When Fabio followed her gaze Maca turned back towards the younger girl. 

"Or... I am asking the wrong person because you are working with them too?" Fabio asked raising his eyebrows.

"What?" Rizos snorted. "Don't insult me, please... Do you think I'd be up to do anything with Macarena, who rejected me, again, and Zulema who... is Zulema?" she asked bitterly. 

"Well, you were chatting with her a minute ago." Fabio said coldly.

"She just wanted to give me a cigarette." Rizos sighed. "Hoping that I have something better in exchange. I didn't." she shrugged.

"I see... But to be honest nothing would surprise me after Macarena herself was up to work together with Zulema a couple of years ago. They say that they had a fall out, what wouldn't be surprising either, but... I have the frustrating feeling that something is going on here, and I don't see it..." 

Rizos laughed. "This is the jail. There are a lot of things going on, what you don't see, Sauron." she rolled her eyes.

"So you don't know anything suspicious about them?" he asked. 

"Suspicious? No." she shrugged. "Can I go now? I am tired of unwanted people seeking my company today." with that she stood up.

"One last question." Fabio insisted. "Do you believe that Macarena was framed?"

"I don't know. And I don't care." Rizos said coldly, then she turned her back on the guard and stepped away from him. She turned back towards him after a couple of steps though. "But if under all that grudge, you still nurture some soft feelings for her, don't waste your energy. She's taken. I think she's been taken for a _long_ time already." she said with a both empathetic and malicious smile and walked away.

Fabio frowned. He remembered that the last time Macarena's name came up in a conversation with Castillo, the old man said that she's a single mother. Now Maca and Rizos were implying something else. _Which of them are wrong? Or maybe the question should be, which of them are lying? And why?_

.

Zulema laid her back against the wall. _Just five more days. Four more nights. And then Maca is out. And then Castillo will get me out of here too._ She didn't like it either what the jail was bringing out of her. For a moment she was wondering about how her life would have turned out, had she never been arrested. It wasn't the first time this thought crossed her mind, but she always got to the conclusion that that woman who would have never been in jail, wouldn't have been her. The jail was the forging fire which created her. And she was content with the life she had now. Outside of the bars, of course. In the end, this was her life and she had to make the best of it, she didn't waste time with what ifs.

But she hated the fact that being there revived some ghosts from her past. The terrible feeling of being trapped, the terrible feeling she felt when she failed to get out, again and again, then the terrible feeling when she actually got out, because she had to pay a price too high for it, the terrible feeling when people she cared about suffered or died, the terrible feeling when she killed people.

She blew out the smoke and gazed through it towards Maca. Once she wanted to kill her too. Could things ever go that wrong that she could still do it? Probably not. But to betray her? It wouldn't be the first time that she does that to someone she cares about. Neither the second. Not even the third. 

A man walked into her visual field, blocking her view on the blonde, she looked up at him and she was almost convinced that she went too far down the memory lane on this sunny day of July, and she is actually seeing a ghost.

"What a nice surprise!" the man wearing the uniform of the guards approached her with an arrogant expression, and gave her a cold smile. 

Zulema stared at him, she even forgot to blow out the smoke. "Shouldn't you be..." 

"...dead?" Hierro finished the question. "Well, I was close, but in the end, your stab wasn't lethal, it just put me through hell for a couple of months. I was oscilating between life and death for a while, and I lost a kidney thanks to you, but... as you see, now I am very alive, thank you very much." he said bitterly.

Zulema swallowed. "Welcome to the club then. We are the few priviledged who came back from the dead. At least we have something in common now." she grinned.

The man grabbed her throat, Zulema didn't fight back, he had his reasons after all.

She looked into Hierro's face. They had already had more in common. But she denied that because she grew to despise him. He looked a bit older, with a few white hairs above his forehead but it suited him. Had he not been choking her right now she would say that he was straight on attractive. Handsome, strong, even aggressive, but also damaged. At one point Zulema even thought that in a parallel universe they could make a hell of a good pair. He was also a bit like a mirror, up until the point when he proved to be just a messed up coward. The exact opposite of her last fling with a man. Zulema was not that narcissistic and neither that masochistic anymore to look for herself in a partner. Poor Miguel, he was just a pissed off good guy who got in her way and agreed to work with her. Hierro never agreed to team up with her. They were always on other poles, and in this universe, right now, the man apparently intended to choke the life out of her.

When Hierro's grip started to become uncomfortable, Zulema grabbed the hand on her neck. "Let me go, you bastard!" 

"You wanted to kill me, you bitch!" 

"No. I didn't _want_ to. I had to. But you survived. So is there a chance that we can get past that?" she asked offhandedly. "It's been almost ten years ago..." 

The grip on her throat tightened. From the corner of her eye Zulema noticed Maca hurrying towards them. She raised a hand signaling her to stay away.

"Keep in mind that you'll pay for what you did to me." he whispered into her face, his lips almost touching hers. He lingered there for a moment. _Oh, you idiot, you haven't changed..._ Zulema thought. Then she kissed him. The man almost instantly pushed her away, Zulema would have fallen down if Maca doesn't grab her arm. The brunette was laughing.

"Is she a friend of yours?" Hierro raised an eyebrow nodding towards Maca.

"No." Zulema made a grimace. "We are just fuck buddies, that doesn't imply that we care about each other, does it?" she grinned at him bitterly. "She's just probably worried about me, cause you know, _I'm_ _good_." Zulema gave him a smirk. 

"Don't piss me off, Zulema. You know that I don't tolerate frustration well." Hierro gave her an angry look and walked away. 

Maca looked at Zulema questioningly. She was geniunely surprised to see Zulema at the other end of this game. If it was a game at all. "Who the hell was that? And did you just tell him that we're... fuck buddies?! After you kissed him?!" 

"Relax..." Zulema rolled her eyes. "He's not the kind of guard who'd sniff after us."

Maca frowned. "He threatened you."

"Nah... that was foreplay." Zulema smiled. "You used to like it too at one point, didn't you?"

Maca shook her head.

"So this was your problematic guy from my hospital period, huh? And I thought that we getting turned on by arguing was our thing. How naive of me..." 

"Are you jealous?" Zulema laughed.

Maca ignored her. "If you call my exes a threat, what do you call him?" 

"Just a pain in the ass." Zulema made a grimace.

Maca raised an eyebrow. "You almost killed him. You told me that you did. Why are you so sure that he won't cause problems? And why are you so ok with the way he is treating you? Anyone else would have walked away with a limp." 

Zulema sighed. 

"The first punch wasn't the fact that I almost killed him. He won't insist on that. Despite the appearences, I am pretty sure that he thinks that he deserved it. He just finds it easier to punish others instead of punishing himself for whatever is hurting him. So we are kind of equals now." 

Maca looked at her, still perplexed. "Did any of your affairs, ever go smoothly?" she shook her head.

"Well... I am trouble." she gave her a smile. "But you know that. Now go away or we'll be once again... spotted together." Zulema finisihed the sentence with a sigh and rolled her eyes once again when she noticed Fabio approaching them. 

"What did you say to Hierro that you pissed him off so much?" 

"I just wasn't enthusiastic enough about finding out that he's not dead." Zulema shrugged. "He probably expected me to jump in his arms or something..." she made a grimace.

Fabio let out a sigh then he blinked at Maca. "And you? What are you doing here?" 

"You know what, Fabio? I am fed up with your attitude, what the hell is your problem? I am getting some air and sunlight. It's our right! Did I give you any reason to be suspicious about me?"

"You keep gravitating towards her." he looked at Zulema. "And her whole being is suspicious."

Zulema laughed. "Relax, handsome... Her golden heart just can't bear the sight of a random prisoner being agressed, even if that random prisoner is me. Bless her..."

Fabio wasn't impressed.

"By the way... Now that you're here, be useful." Zulema continued. "I want to talk to Castillo. There was some fucking misunderstanding regarding those evidences, and he still didn't take the time to second check them based on what I said. Can you pass him the word if you see him? Please?"

"You can't talk to him." Fabio said briefly.

"Why?" Zulema frowned.

"He's in the hospital."

Maca looked at Zulema, the brunette swallowed. "Why?"

"He had a heart attack this morning. He hasn't woken up yet."

Zulema clenched her jaw. This sounded bad. Worse than anything she was prepared for these days.

"We all hope that he'll have a quick recovery, but the doctors weren't exactly positive... It's good to know that you'll pray for her recovery too." Fabio added coldly, but he was evidently worried about Castillo, then she left them on their own.

"Zulema..." Maca turned towards the brunette who was looking blankly after him. 

"Not a word. We have three more bars to remove, don't lose focus." she said without looking at the blonde.

. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really unsure about what to do with the plan. For a while I wanted to go around it and not describe it at all, just the difficulties it causes, lmao, but then I got this idea and I went with it.


	5. The choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you so much for the lovely feedback! ❤ I didn't expect such a positive one for the previous chapter, wow!
> 
> This chapter was writing itself in my head like a fever dream. I was stuck with it the whole week! Damn... It's good that I am having a couple of chill and relatively eventless weeks now, because otherwise I'd be once again worried that I am taking this whole ff writing too far, lol. I hope you'll like it! This one is special too me. 😊
> 
> (A quite important thing to mention: For the level of angst I wanted to put them through I should have killed or at least arrested Castillo, but I didn't have the heart to do it, so I left the situation the way it is.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +/- ♬ This chapter goes with a "soundtrack" too, both songs sung by Tarja (my favourite singer): ⇒ [Darkness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAoqj3x6B48) & [Shadow Play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpxA5JTT5Ec)  
> (The first one is a cover of Peter Gabriel's Darkness, a pretty disturbing song, but I think it suits Zulema's character a lot. And this chapter itself has a couple of disturbing moments too, so I guess it fits.) ♬  
> 

* * *

_"Thank you!" Maca smiled at Zulema and wrapped her arms around her. It was the warmest, and most genuinely grateful way someone has ever approached Zulema. It should have felt good. But it felt bad. It almost hurt. It suffocated. It was chaining her down._

_They were standing in front of the open window. Everything was ready. Except for the part Castillo had to play._

_"You're welcome." Zulema kissed Maca's forhead, then she smiled at her. And then she pushed her. Away from herself, forcefully, so that Maca lost her balance and she fell. Out through the window, down from the last floor.  
_

_Then Zulema was climbing down, and a moment later she was running between the cars until she found the one. The driver looked at her being puzzled. "Change of plan." Zulema said. "Go!"_

_She was walking on a wide, crowded street. She didn't recognize the people, but she knew that they were gazing at her, they were whispering, they were judging her. She felt threatened. A little girl appeared in front of her. "Where is my mommy? When I was sad that you were leaving too, you said you'll come back with her!" she said with a reproachful voice. Her mere presence terrified Zulema. What could she tell her? "_ _She has to stay away for a bit longer. I'll keep being your mommy until then, ok?" she smiled and wanted to hug her, but the child pushed her away. "No!_ _You lied!_ _You were never_ _my mommy! And you'll never be!" With that the girl disappeared in the crowd._

_Zulema wanted to go forward, but she couldn't move her legs. They were in chains. She looked up again, the people still looked at her with a judging gaze, some of them were laughing now, maliciously. And then she recognized their faces. Each and every one of them was herself._

_Someone laughed behind her back. She turned around. It was Hierro. "I told you that you will pay, but I didn't expect you to do it with your own hands, dear..." he looked at her with disgust. "Welcome to hell. It's only for the rest of your life."_

_Zulema blinked and when she opened her eyes, Hierro was nowhere to be seen. Neither the other people. She only saw her own reflection in a store window on the empty street. She let out a desperate shout and hit the window. The glass broke into pieces, and her hand was bleeding, but the reflection was still lingering there in front of her, grinning at her maliciously, silently telling her that she'll never go away._

_She was out of prison. But she was still a prisoner._

_._

Zulema woke up with her heart racing. The first thing she did was to move her legs. She was able to do it. _For God's sake! I am losing my mind!_ She let out a sigh and rubbed her face trying to calm herself down.

She fell asleep after long hours of lying awake and thinking about an alternative plan, trying to upgrade the original one, so that both of them can escape with it. But with no result. She felt trapped. She was up to come back here to get Maca out, but she wasn't planning to swap places with her. And the worst part of it was that she couldn't blame anyone for it. It was not Rizos betraying them, it was not Fabio or anyone else catching them, there was no one she could attack, or kill, it was simple bad luck, a lightning hitting her from the clear blue sky, or maybe just her karma eventually finding her and fucking her over. _But maybe Castillo will be fine in the next days. Maybe everything will work out as planned in the end. Maybe..._ She hated these maybes. She had absolutely no control over them, and for Zulema that felt like a disability. 

She couldn't fall asleep again. She was just laying on her bed once again, eyes wide open, looking at the bottom of the bed from above her, listening to the loud and annoying snoring of her cellmate. This place felt suffocating.

She told Maca that they'll do the plan anyway, but it has indeed crossed her mind that maybe she should just get out of here herself instead of Maca. She wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place. But neither was Maca. So she chased away the thought, and started thinking about a better solution instead. There had to be one.

The woman above her kept snoring. The sound was getting on her nerves. She angrily kicked into the bottom of her bed. "Could you be more quiet, piggy? Some people around here want to sleep too!" she said being annoyed. _Or think._ The woman snorted and turned onto her side. 

In the past two days they got rid of another two bars from the window, but they barely talked. Zulema shut down almost any conversation Maca wanted to start. She acted like a cold, calculated engineer, she didn't show any emotion since their conversation with Fabio. As if she'd be in autopilot mode. She was slightly worried about what she'll be like if she turns it off and acts from her own consideration. 

She closed her eyes. If Castillo won't wake up in the next days, she was also afraid that Maca will be stupid enough to not want to leave either. _Why the hell did I come here in the first place? That was a stupid idea too!_ The obvious answer was floating in her mind from the start, but she was looking for another one. Because that answer would surely not convince Maca to leave if necessary. _Because I couldn't handle that little monster on my own. I would have messed up everything. She has to be with her mother._ And for a moment Zulema was wondering whether she would have done all this, had there been no kid in the picture. She arrived to the conclusion that then there wouldn't have been a father either who could have framed Maca, so it's pointless to even think about it. She wasn't the one to create hypothetical problems to solve. She had plenty of real ones.

* * *

In the late afternoon, the day before the truck was about to arrive they were done working on the window. They fitted the bars back loosely, so that no one notices that they are missing. They were tired and covered in dust. Maca sat down on the floor, thinking that they'll share a couple of words, but Zulema headed towards the door.

The blonde jumped up and grabbed her arm. "Where the hell do you think you are going?!" 

"To eat my dinner, I am starving. And then to sleep. Tomorrow at 7 am we already have to be in action." Zulema said seriously.

"Exactly... Don't you think that we should... talk?" Maca raised her eyebrows.

"About what? We went through the plan at least ten times. You run. Meanwhile I distract their attention from the parking lot and then I go to the corridor leading to the storage room to make sure that no one is after you until you're safely out. And that's it." the brunette shrugged.

"Zulema..." Maca sighed. "You shouldn't even be here..."

 _I am totally aware of that. There's no need to remind me of it._ Zulema was almost out of the room.

"You should be the one who leaves tomorrow." Maca said with conviction.

Zulema stopped, then she turned back towards the blonde and started laughing. "Are you totally nuts? Don't be stupid, Maca.... I didn't do all this for nothing."

"You came here to help me, not to end up being stuck in here!" Maca said desperately. 

"I am not stuck in here!" Zulema said quietly, but Maca sensed the restrained anger in her voice. _Yet._ "Castillo might soon recover." 

" _Might_." Maca repeated the disturbing word. "You are not building on mights, Zulema... Never."

"If he doesn't, I'll find another way to get out of here." Zulema spread her arms impatiently. 

Maca shook her head. "You don't believe what you are saying either. I know you. I can understand it if you want to back off. It's normal-"

Zulema stepped back to Maca and grabbed her shoulders. "Don't say that again." she said as she looked in her eyes. _You might convince me._ "I never back off." _Only when it clearly is in my benefit. "_ So stop trying to make me change my mind." she said firmly with a hint of a reassuring smile and was tempted too hug the blonde, but she didn't. _You might succeed, and you wouldn't win anything out of it. And probably neither would I._

"I can't leave knowing that you are stuck here because of me!" Maca said with teary eyes. 

Zulema sighed. Then she shook Maca by her shoulders. "Think about your daughter! She needs you! Do you want her to go through her years from when she'll have her first vivid memories and remember what? That her mother left her?!" 

Maca looked angrily at Zulema and wanted to push her away, but she was holding her firmly. "I didn't leave her!" 

"I know that." Zulema said coldly. "But she doesn't. She only knows that her mommy disappeared from one day to the next, barely saying goodbye." she added. "And soon after that her other mother who tried to not lose her or accidentally get her killed left her too." Zulema shrugged. "I am sure that she has everything she needs now, except for you. I bet that she feels abandoned now, and you know that too." 

Maca didn't say anything. She knew. And she also knew that in the long term this was bad. But in the moment leaving Zulema there felt also wrong. She couldn't imagine just saying a _thank you_ and turn her back on her and leave, leaving her behind. The thought of that felt like a betrayal, even though it wasn't one. She knew that if she was thinking rationally, she was the one who had to leave, but that didn't make it easier. After all without Castillo Zulema didn't have a much better chance than her to get out of there anytime soon either. After the five years to which she was condemned to would pass, yes, she would be free, but those were another five damned years, and she has lost plenty of time already.

"End of discussion." Zulema said firmly.

Maca angrily pulled her arms away from her grip. "Stop dictating everything! It's not like I don't have a say in the matter!" 

"You do have! But all you are coming up with today are stupid ideas!" Zulema said bitterly. 

"All right ladies, now how do you explain this rendez-vous?" Fabio's voice cut through the air like a knife on their skin. 

.

They froze for a moment, then Zulema grabbed the tool they were cutting the bars with and jumped at the man, cornering him, and pressing it against his throat. "You should have taken a walk on the first floor today, prince charming. Too bad..." she shook her head mockingly. 

"Zulema, don't be stupid, you can't kill a guard..." Fabio said catching his breath. "You'll end up rotting here for eternity."

The brunette laughed. "That doesn't mean that I can't, it only means that I shouldn't." she put more pressure on his neck and a drop of blood ran down his skin.

Maca was actually frightened by the look on Zulema's face, she looked like a starving wild animal, who finally found a prey to jump on. She looked like she was about to let out all her restrained anger on Fabio. This was the image of the woman who she used to despise so much. But over the years she learned that the worst of Zulema is not fuelled by malevolence, it is just an extreme, perverted version of self-defence. And in this case she wasn't even defending herself. She was defending her.

"Stop it!" Maca jumped near them and pressed herself between the two, trying to take away the tool from Zulema's hands. She didn't succeed.

"Go away, Macarena, she'll kill us both!" Fabio said angrily and wanted to push Maca away, but she didn't move. 

"Shut up, you idiot! She won't kill anyone." she said with her back towards Fabio and looked straight in Zulema's eyes as she placed a hand on her chest as an attempt to slightly push her away. "Right?" 

Zulema smirked. "Ok, let's say that I won't." she shrugged. "But then what is your solution to handle this inconvenience, sweetie?" she asked ironically.

"We'll tell him the truth." Maca said. 

Zulema let out a laugh, she stepped away from them rolling her eyes. "Fine." she said spreading her arms. "Tell him. If it doesn't impress him, I can still kill him. _I will kill him_."

"That won't be necessary." Maca swallowed and turned towards Fabio. "Long story short: I was framed by the psychopathic father of my daughter because he wants her back after he lost her while he was in jail, and Zulema got herself arrested to get me out of here."

"What?" Fabio was perplexed and also almost laughing. "Zulema? Getting herself _arrested_? To get _you_ out of here?" 

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Can I continue, blondie?"

"No!" Maca answered being annoyed, while she leaned closer to Fabio. "This is the situation. And I was separated from my daughter twice already. No asshole will do it again. I, myself, will end anyone else who tries it. Including you." Maca said calmly.

Fabio was looking at her with wide open eyes. Zulema raised an eyebrow.

"But first I am asking you nicely." Maca continued. "So please, Fabio, walk out on that door, and forget that you saw here anything." 

"My version is safer." Zulema said coldly behind her back. 

"Shut up!" Maca snapped at her without turning around. Zulema spread her arms meekly and let out a sigh.

"Do you think you can do that?" Maca asked calmly from Fabio and ran her finger along her jawline. "Just one last favour, Fabio. For me. And you don't have to do anything. You have to do absolutely _nothing_." 

Zulema shook her head. _That's a wild card you're playing there, blondie. It can backfire in a minute or less..._

 _"_ Why would I want to do anything for you?" Fabio asked. 

Maca tried to remain calm. "Because you are not a bad person Fabio. And I am just a mother who wants to go back to her daughter." 

Fabio was silent for a moment. "How does she come into the picture?" he looked at Zulema after a while.

Maca blinked at her, the brunette shrugged her shoulders. 

"She's..." Maca started. 

"I just spent a while with her and I realized that I don't want to live without her." Zulema abruptly interrupted her on an indifferent tone and stepped near them. "Is that convincing enough?" she looked insolently at Fabio.

"It's not convincing at all." the man laughed bitterly. 

"Perfect then." Zulema nodded. "That's not the point anyway. And I am running out of patience..."

"Fabio, please..." Maca continued and touched his shoulder. "Walk away, and stay quiet. For your own sake, if not mine." she added coldly. "If I'll be stuck here because of you, I swear that I'll make your life miserable. And if I'll somehow get away despite you not keeping your mouth shut, I won't be here to keep her from killing you." she nodded with her head towards Zulema. 

"Wait... she's not going?" Fabio frowned. 

Zulema let out a loud sigh, then she stepped closer to him. "Which part do you still not understand? Maca is the one who has to get out. And if knowing that I will be still stuck here will make it easier for you to keep your mouth shut, then, yes handsome..." Zulema leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear "...you are not getting rid of me anytime soon!" 

Fabio was puzzled. He was pondering whether he should ask why Zulema is willing to do all this at all. He didn't. He did uncover their plan to escape, his suspicion that they were up to something was correct, but he realized that there are clearly things in the background he still has no idea about. And which probably are none of his business. And he maybe is better off not knowing. 

He turned his gaze towards Maca. "All right. But just this once. If you mess it up, or if you ever again need help, don't count on me."

He gave Zulema a still suspicious look then he slowly stepped out of the room.

.

"I don't trust him." Zulema bit into her lip nervously.

"I do." Maca said quietly.

"Why are you so sure?" the brunette frowned. 

"Because he's not a bad person." Maca said as he turned back towards Zulema. "And I think he still believes that I am not one either."

"Does that mean that you don't trust me?" Zulema laughed bitterly. 

Maca stepped closer to her, closer than necessary for talking. "You are not a bad person either." she said quietly, slowly wrapping Zulema into a soft embrace. "You're just too impulsive sometimes." she placed a kiss on her cheek. "And often annoying. But..." she kissed the corner of her mouth. 

"What are you doing, Maca?" Zulema asked, being slightly alarmed.

"I'm kissing you." Maca whispered absent-mindedly into her neck.

"Well that was obvious. But I don't think it's the proper time or place to do it."

"It's been more than a month..." Maca said as she placed a kiss on her collarbone.

"We should focus on the plan." Zulema said seriously, making Maca look at her.

"We went through the plan eleven times, Zulema. You said it. All we have to do now is to wait for the morning..." with that she pushed Zulema against an old ladder which was placed in front of a probably even older shelf.

"Someone can see us..." Zulema insisted.

"Fabio won't talk, we're safe. And even if he does..." Maca shrugged. "At least whoever will come here to check what's going on will be surprised to find a different scenario than what he expects." Maca said offhandedly as she sneaked a hand under Zulema's undershirt.

"Do you care so little about your escape that you are joking about it?" the brunette laughed bitterly. 

"Humour is the wisest coping mechanism, isn't it? Besides... it's not my escape. You will get out tomorrow. I only talked like that to Fabio, because he probably would have been indeed less willing to keep his mouth shut for you."

"Stop this nonsense..." Zulema said impatiently and slightly pulled away from the blonde. 

"Zulema, I've been thinking about this... since the moment we heard about Castillo. I won't be able to survive as a fugitive on the run on my own, especially not with a kid!" she shook her head. "I am not cut out for that kind of life!" 

Zulema looked at her with her mouth open. "That's bullshit!" she said. "I've spent almost a decade with you, I know that you can do it! And I've told you, you can go to my house in Morocco, Saray will give you all the details you need. And I don't plan to rot in here forever anyway, I'll be out sooner or later. If you stay here, your chance of getting out of here is much smaller than mine this time! It's stupid!" 

Maca rubbed her face and shook her head. _Whatever..._ "You're right." she nodded eventually. "But let's forget for a moment about all this, ok?" Maca continued and she once again wrapped her arms around Zulema, and ran her fingers through her dark hair, grasping it, as she held her close. She knew that probably it was painful but she couldn't control her instinct to cling into her. She just wanted to make sure that she knows that she is loved, and that she is not alone.

And only then Zulema realized what Maca was doing. She was not being careless or needy. She was saying goodbye. Regardless of which one of them was about to climb out through the window in the morning, this was a farewell. Zulema wasn't a fan of sentimental goodbyes, they just made leaving more difficult. But no part of her wanted to let go of Maca in that moment either. She came to the conclusion that they can have this moment. After all, who knows when will they see each other again?

"Do you really want to live out the jail fantasies you had about me so much that you want to have a quickie... here?" Zulema raised an eyebrow and looked around the tiny and dirty room, trying to shift the mood.

"I've been telling you for years that I did not fantasize about you back then. Accept it already!" Maca said jokingly but her eyes were teary. "By the way... If I was the first woman you've slept with, and probably the only one too, I dare to assume... then this will be your first time to have sex in jail. How many firsts did you have with me, huh?" Maca asked with a smirk, being amused.

"It's not my first time in jail." Zulema shook her head smugly. 

"Well, it is your first time with another prisoner." Maca shrugged. "Deal with it!" she sad impatiently as she removed Zulema's undershirt and then her own and continued kissing down her chest and abdomen.

When she reached the top of her pants Zulema placed a hand under Maca's chin, making her straighten up and look at her. "Let's stay closer today, okay?" she said quietly as she caressed her face with her thumbs. 

Maca kissed her forehead, what made a shiver run through Zulema, giving her flashbacks from her nightmare. _You'll be the end of me_. She almost instinctively pushed her away, but the blonde must have sensed that she's tense, and before she could have done it, Maca placed her arms around her neck. "Just let me love you." she whispered soothingly. Zulema chased away the unwelcomed images, and as she reluctantly gave in, wrapping her arms around Maca's back too, holding her close, she could feel that she was silently sobbing. _This much about trying to avoid sentimental goodbyes._ she thought. It was the most genuinely loving and grateful way someone has ever approached her and vice versa. And although the context was painful, the embrace was nothing but warm, and pleasant, and heartening, a confirmation that this pain was worth to endure.

No one disturbed them. Fabio apparently kept his promise, at least for now.

* * *

The night passed as slowly as if the morning would never want to arrive. And when it did, they barely could keep up with it.

Zulema messed a bit with the angle of the cameras important to them, so that they won't be noticed. She also sensibly manipulated a couple of other ones in the other side of the building just to make sure that they will miss the ones in case of which the change was less screaming. Then she hurried up to the last floor.

She saw Maca leaning against an ugly wardrobe near the door of the storage room. 

"Why the hell are you still here?!" Zulema asked nervously. "You should be climbing down by now! The car is already here!"

Maca shook her head. "I've told you that it's not me going."

Zulma looked at her impatiently, with disbelief. "We discussed that."

"Yeah, I said that you're going. You said that it's stupid. I said that you're right. But I never said that I'll be the one leaving. You just might have missed that because I got under your skin meanwhile." she shrugged.

 _You manipulative, bitch..._ Zulema almost grabbed the blonde's throat, she was risking to waste the entire plan with her stubbornness. But she also knew that she won't solve anything with opposing her. 

"All right... I'll go." she said quietly as she approached her. "Thank you." she smiled at Maca, then she suddenly kissed her, passionately and forcefully, so Maca didn't even notice it when they ended up on the other side of the threshold of the room. Then Zulema roughly pushed her away from herself, Maca lost her balance and fell down in the middle of it. Meanwhile Zulema backed out from the room. "Take care, blondie!" she said with a faint smile before she quickly closed the door in front of herself. 

"No! You manipulative bitch!" Maca shouted from inside. 

Zulema pushed the old wardrobe in front of the door so that it can't be opened, so when Maca wanted to tear it open, she had no chance. "The clock is ticking. Don't be stupid, Maca. At least one of us has to get out today." Zulema said trying to keep her voice calm.

"I hate you!" Maca shouted once again, while she was hitting the door. Zulema could hear in her voice that she was crying. 

She rested her back against the doors of the wardrobe. "I know." she said quietly. Then she heard a noise as the bars were thrown on the floor, meaning that Maca was on her way out. Zulema closed her eyes and let out a sigh. _I hate you too, blondie._ she thought as a tear ran down her cheek. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second half of this fic will come after a relatively short break! ❤


	6. Alone. But not quite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, I struggle writing bridge-like chapters! Because this is where I am trying to make sense of the plot, and trying to eliminate plot-holes (while creating new ones), which is quite nerve-wrecking if you lock your characters up, lol.  
> (This one also has some more intimate Zulema/Hierro interaction in it. Sorry/You're welcome!)

Maca stepped out from the small car they got into after leaving the truck at the side of the road. They've changed the vehicle soon after getting far away enough from the prison. It was a six hour drive, she changed into some normal clothes along the way, so she didn't look like a fugitive prisoner anymore, but she still must have looked like an unhinged woman who escaped a mental institute, which wasn't much better either. She thanked the guy who drove her there, Rick seemed to be relieved that he has finished playing his part and can finally disappear.

She was standing in front of Saray's house.

"Mommy! Finally!" her daughter ran towards her with Scorpius as her shadow. "I missed you so much!" 

"I missed you too sweetie!" Maca said as she kissed her and held her tightly in her arms. 

"Where is Zuzu?" the girl asked after a while. 

"She's..." Maca swallowed. Meanwhile Saray appeared in the front door. "She'll join us a bit later." she said.

"Later when?" Saray asked sharply.

Maca who was still hugging the little girl, shook her head while looking at the other woman, silently telling her that she didn't make it out.

Saray angrily threw the empty milk bottle she was holding in her hand away. "I've told her that her plan is crazy and that she shouldn't do it!"

Maca felt as if she had been slapped. They never got along too well, but the bluntness of her words was an even colder welcome than the one she expected to recieve.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok." Maca shook her head. "I kept telling her the same after all."

Saray poured themselves some coffee and Maca told her what happened. Well, with as much details as the presence of the girl sitting on her lap allowed her to. Saray was now looking at her with wide open eyes.

"When did you two get this far?" she asked with disbelief. "I mean... this close? I never imagined her with a woman, and..." 

"And especially not with me, right? I have no idea when..." Maca shook her head. "It just happened." she stood up to wash her cup.

"Which was first, the feelings or the... steamy part?" Saray asked jokingly blinking at the little girl.

"Huh?" Maca turned back towards her being surprised by the direct question. "Come on... Zulema said that she told you everything. Well... everything _relevant_ , I hope so..." she corrected herself. "So-".

"Yeah, she told me. _Everything relevant."_ Saray smirked. "But I'm curious about your version too."

"Ok... The steamy part was first." Maca said firmly. "The amazing, undescribeable, crazy... steamy part!" she added with emphasis. "You're happy now?" Maca was in no mood for this discussion.

"Ok, no more details, thank you!" Saray lifted her palms. 

"Wait..." Maca frowned, and suddenly she started to feel bad. "Are you jealous?" 

"What? No! She's my friend, you dummy. She's not my type." she shrugged. "I'm just curious."

Maca still had a bitter taste left in her mouth. 

_I sort of stole your girlfriend, then I sort of stole your best friend, and now you're babysitting my daughter._

"Thank you for taking care of her. I'm very grateful for that." she said and squeezed Saray's shoulder. 

"Lovely creature." the other woman said playing with the girl's ponytail. "And smart. She has a sharp tongue though... She called the cat imbecil. I have an idea who she gets that from." she laughed.

Maca smiled, but it quickly disappeared from her face. She knew that she'll heavily feel Zulema's absence in her everyday life, and it was bad enough already, even if she has barely even started properly feeling it.

"Are you planning to do something to get her out of there?" Saray asked suddenly. 

Maca didn't even have the time to think about that yet. "Yes." she said. 

"What?" 

"I have no freaking idea." Maca turned her gaze towards her. "But I'll come up with something." 

"You can count on my help." Saray smiled at her. "As long as my name and my family stays out of it." 

Maca nodded. Normally she would have said the same. But ironically, right now her name and her family were the epicenter of the problem.

_._

Zulema was sitting on the ground in the courtyard, smoking. It's been half an hour since the alarm in the parking lot went off. They were still trying to find out who the prisoner who escaped in a delivery truck through the half closing gates was.

At one point Maca insisted that they should both try to get into the truck, but Zulema was right when she said that the chance that two people can make it down the wall, find the truck and get out through the gate in time was extremely slim. The gate closed in ten seconds after the alarm went off, with a great chance that the second person would have been stuck in the parking lot. And Zulema wasn't taking that risk. This time she preferred to actually get out through the front door, at least until there was a chance that she'll be able to do it in a relatively reasonable time. It still was a huge hazard, and the uncertainty was playing on her nerves, like a three year old on a violin, but she went with it. 

Rizos appeared from a nearby door. She stopped and gazed towards Zulema for a moment. Then she turned her back on her and headed in the opposite direction. _How ironic!_ Zulema thought. _The first time around you pushed her into my claws just to make sure that she'll come back to prison to you and not be freed. Who would have thought that I'll turn out to do the the exact opposite one day?_

She raised the cigarette to her lips as she continued staring at the prisoners bitterly. _What a bunch... And I am stuck here once again..._ In a way she felt superior to them, she always did. But of what use was feeling superior if she wasn't able to do anything to help herself? 

"You are disappointing me..." she heard a voice from behind her back. Hierro came out to the courtyard, his hands on his hips. "When I heard that we have a fugitive I was hundred percent sure that it was you." 

"I'm a good girl now." Zulema said as she blew out the smoke. 

"You? Never..." the man laughed. "Is there something wrong?" he frowned.

 _Is there something right?_ "I am not doing anything bad and you are asking me if something is wrong?" she made a grimace as she looked up at him.

Hierro nodded. "I know you, you don't just take whatever is thrown on you. Especially not the jail."

Zulema swallowed. "You've known me for a brief time ten years ago. A brief and really awful time. Yeah, you know the worst of me." she nodded. "But let's hope, for both of our sake, that I am not at my worst right now."

"Well... you indeed look a bit less crazy, maybe it's the longer hair. Why do you keep hiding it in that messy ponytail?" 

"Because the shampoos we get here are shit." Zulema sad being annoyed. "Everything here is shit." she added kicking into a stone.

Hierro looked at her still frowning. "Are you... sad?"

Zulema shook her head laughing. "No, I am extremely joyful to be here!" she said ironically. "I'm tired." she said on a more serious tone and threw the stub away. "Of this place, of this bunch, of this cheap cigarette, of your annoying questions, of your face..." she said angrily as she stood up, but Hierro put a hand on her waist stopping her. 

"What happened?" 

"Nothing happened." Zulema said quietly. "And even if something would have happened, I don't think you are the person I would want to talk to about it." 

"Why? Is there anyone else around here who'd ask you what's bothering you?" Hierro asked coldly.

Zulema clenched her jaw, then she grabbed his neck, a moment later the man grabbed her wrists, and the stronger the man's grip was the stronger Zulema squeezed his neck and vice versa.

"Actually... to be honest, I'm tired of this too..." Zulema said after a while, and let go of him. Hierro lowered his arm too frowning. She wanted to walk away but he once again stood in her way. "Can I do something for you?"

"What?" Zulema laughed. "Now you want to help me? Is your conscience still tormenting you?"

"I am just asking if I can do something for you, because you look like shit. But if you don't want it, I'm gone..."

Zulema grabbed his arm. "There might be something." she said then she slowly wrapped her arms around him, placing her chin on his shoulder. She felt him hesitantly laying his hands on her back, and there in his arms, Zulema felt just a tiny little bit less alone than a minute earlier, but still entirely, if not more miserable. She was tired of being strong. She wanted the soothing comfort of someone holding her. Not because she wanted someone to take care of her. She just wanted to keep the part of herself which wasn't a cold-hearted, arrogant, insensitive bitch alive. When she realized that she was fighting her tears she pushed him away from herself and walked away. _I'm selfish even when I am trying to not turn into a nightmare..._

"Well... that was lovely." Hierro said coldly. "But what is it you want me to do?" he stepped after her.

Zulema rolled her eyes. "Stop following me." she said without looking back at him. 

* * *

Maca was laying on the bed in the trailer, her arms wrapped around her daughter who was sleeping soundly. 

She couldn't sleep. Almost two weeks have passed, and she barely once slept more than three hours a night. She was afraid. Afraid of the police finding her. Afraid of Daniel finding them. Afraid that Zulema won't be able to get out. At least if she could talk to her. Saray called her while she was still there, but they didn't talk, it would have been too dangerous. And what could she have told her anyway? A part of her was even glad that they didn't have to talk until she had at least a potential solution in her hand. But what could that be? Even if Zulema manages to escape too, they would count as dangerous fugitives and their lives would be hell. She can't even send her daughter to school this way. At least one of them had to be clean. And she had no chance at that anymore. _Or do I?_ Then a crazy idea crossed her mind. Crazy, difficult to accomplish, which could go wrong far too easily, but probably her only chance.

But she had to be able to communicate with Zulema. She needed someone who can visit her. Saray was out of question. She bit into her lip. _Why haven't we made more friends, damn?!_ Then it occurred to her. She knew who could be the perfect messenger when necessary. If he agrees to it. _He will. He owes her._

She got out of the bed, careful to not wake her daughter up and she started looking through the drawers. _Tell me you didn't throw it out!_ _And I hope I did not delete his number in one if my arrogant moments!_ _Here!_ She found her old phone from a couple of years ago. She grabbed it, but then she noticed one of Zulema's in the drawer too. She took that one instead and put it charging. 

She turned it on as soon as the phone wanted to cooperate. She typed in Zulema's pass-code, this was the first one of her phones she actually had access to, then she scrolled through the list of contacts. Barely any real names in there. Seeing all that gave her another idea. An even crazier one, but Zulema would probably like that more than the first one. _Let's take it slowly..._ Then she found the number she was looking for. _Here you are, you son of a bitch! I used to want to see you gone, but I sure as hell hope that you'll come back now!_

.

Zulema has found some people she got to the point with where they could talk about irrelevant, superficial things. It was still something better than not talking to anyone. It's been almost a month since she was stuck there. She was thinking about potential plans to escape, but she didn't trust her new "friends" enough to get them involved. 

Castillo still hasn't woken up. Which was a very upsetting factor when it came about his chance of getting back to work and actually having the decision-making power to get her out of there anytime soon even if he does wake up. Zulema has already given up on that road almost entirely, and she became less and less patient and more and more determined to come up with a working plan. Also with less and less regard on what it implies for others. She was aware of it. But she couldn't help it. She either accepts her fate and sits there waiting for time to pass, or she clings into her driving force to get herself out of there what could turn to be bloody in the end. Like it always does. She wasn't the one to sit around waiting. She was ambivalent though, trying not to cross some of her newly estabilished moral codes but in the same time she was angry, and the caged animal in her wanted to come out more and more with each day which passed.

No one visited her. Who would have? Maca was a fugitive. Castillo was in a coma. Saray was in the other side of the country. Only one person showed an annoying, slightly still perverted interest in her. It wasn't exactly one-sided though.

She bumped into Hierro one day while she was leaving the laundry room. They haven't seen each other in the past couple of weeks. He was assigned to another side, and moreover, they never met in private since Zulema was back in the jail.

She passed him silently, but after a couple of steps something made her look back. _Big mistake._ She realized that he did the same. 

Hierro slowly stepped back to her. "What do you want, Zulema? Do you want me to hug you again? Because that's what you wanted, no? Or do you want something else now?" he asked grabbing one of Zulema's breasts through her clothes. His touch made a shiver run up her spine. She did find him attractive, she was aware of that already. And she hasn't been with a man since she made Miguel leave. And that's been years ago. More precisely, she hasn't been with anyone else other than Maca for years.

She slapped him. "Don't touch me, you imbecil!" She would have slapped herself too for looking back at all.

Hierro fought his urge to hit her too, eventually he won, and he didn't. "Sorry, I thought that's what you wanted." he said arrogantly.

They just stared at each other for a while, like two animals ready to attack each other.

"I shouldn't want anything." Zulema said quietly.

"But you do." Hierro shrugged. "Because you're still standing here. You know... this whatever what was... or is... between us... Is there any reason to not act on it?"

Zulema looked at him. She wanted some proximity. She wanted some affection. Hierro was not the best candidate for that, but she wanted to feel something, _anything_ , other than desperation. 

"Besides... if you don't give me a reason, I don't have to be rough with you."

"Maybe I like it that way." Zulema grinned bitterly.

Hierro pushed her against the wall, his hands once again touching her wherever they could, his body tightly against hers. It was obvious now that they both wanted this. But Zulema pushed him away from herself. "I said _maybe_."

'Well then make up your mind already!" he said impatiently.

Zulema was conflicted, and she barely ever was conflicted about something like this. She was no stranger to hook-ups or one-night stands, she had a phase when that was all she had. Then again when she was in stable relationships, she did not put herself in situations to feel conflicted. And she's been in a stable relationship now. Even if they didn't exactly call it like that. A messed up, quite hopeless relationship at this point, but a real one, nevertheless.

She blinked at Hierro, he looked at her with eyebrows raised. When she saw that Zulema still wasn't moving in either direction he leaned in closer to her, and let her hair loose from the ponytail. 

Zulema didn't stop him, she let out a snort instead. "Come on, don't tell me you have a soft spot for me with longer hair. It's pathetic."

"I don't have any soft spots for you. I was just curious." he said as he ran his fingers down the length of her hair 

Zulema nodded. Her hair still hanging down on one of her shoulders the way he left it. Then Hierro kissed her, deeply, without hesitation, his hands wandered down her body, one settling on her back, the other sneaked under her shirt, touching her skin, his hip firmly pressed against Zulema's now. His proximity felt good. And it also felt wrong.

"No... Stop!" Zulema once again pushed him away.

"Why are you so tense?" he asked, almost genuinely interested in the answer. "You're not the one who would feel bad about using someone as a distraction."

Zulema bit into her lip, then she looked at him. _Being honest will be the shortest way out, I guess._ "A distraction would be good. But that would mean that I am cheating on someone. And I don't want to do that." she said seriously. "Sorry for getting you worked up." she added indifferently and walked away from him, leaving the perplexed guard on his own.

.

She hurried through the corridor cursing herself. Reaching her cell she found Fabio waiting there. "Finally... I was looking for you."

"What the hell did I do this time?" Zulema asked on a tired tone.

"Nothing. You have a visitor."

Zulema raised her eyebrows. "Who?"

"Some Emmanuel Lang."

She looked at him puzzled, but she realized that maybe she shouldn't act surprised. "Yeah, awesome!" she said. "I missed him."

Fabio gave her a suspicious look. "You have no idea who he is, right? I have a feeling that he wasn't using his real name."

Zulema nervously bit into her lip.

"Anyway..." Fabio continued. "To quote him, he's a _pissed-off, sort of ex-boyfriend, who has finally googled you_. Does that say something?"

Zulema smiled. "Vaguely." 

_What the hell blondie, are you that desperate to talk to me that you are sending your ex-nemesis in my way?_

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is almost finished too, so you don't have to wait long for the continuation. 😊
> 
> (spoiler: Nor to Zurena scenes. They will be reunited very soon, don't worry! :) Also, I might have went smuttier than usually with an upcoming chapter too. Oops.)


	7. The cellmate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♬ Soundtrack: [Burn With Me by Amaranthe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEgkUKCwi30) ♬  
>  _"You are gone to the highest bidder, now you're with a man that is gods worst sinner  
>  Well no, don't care about me, I was just the man who meant to set you free  
> There is this something that I need to know, why am I the only one that lost it all"_
> 
> Ok, I think I went from using the ellipsis for smut, to using it for them explaining their actual escape plans, lol. _#balance_  
>  So this one has the smut, but if you're interested in what plan B is before the last chapter, you'll have to figure it out yourself, haha. But I think I've left enough clues. :)  
> Initially I wanted this to have an angrier tone, but apparently they make they own decisions, and they had other ideas...

"So... You've googled me, you're saying?" Zulema asked with a smile as she stood down by the small table in front of the man. 

"Actually... no. I haven't. I just had to say something and it made more sense this way." Miguel shrugged. "If I wasn't interested in it while you were in my life, why would I be when you are not?"

Zulema shook her head laughing. "You're unbelievable..." 

"I wasn't spending the last 6 years thinking about you, Zulema. I've got my life together. Well, sort of... My son moved back to me while he was in high school. That's what you wanted, no?" 

_Touché..._ "Well... but you are in my life now." Zulema insisted with a smirk. "You're still not curious?"

"I'm not staying for long. And you're also in jail right now. This story will do for me." he said indifferently. "Why do you keep insisting on your distant past? Let it go."

He was acting tough, but Zulema saw through him. And she was still amazed by this man's willingness to want to see the good in her. Well... he did see some bad too, but not the worst. He was the exact opposite of who Hierro was to her, who only saw that. And she decided to stick with him after Maca left because the man was... good, well, in her terms. And she didn't want to slip back to darkness right when she seemed to be on a relatively stable ground in life. He kept her balanced. And the sex was also good. But he didn't know her. Not really.

"Did our friend convince you to help? What did she offer you?"

"Nothing." Miguel shrugged. "She said that I owe you." 

Zulema restrained a laugh. She did him a favour, saving him from jail, but she did it to make him want to leave. She never saw him as owing her. And she was certain that he saw it the same way. 

"Anyway..." Miguel continued. "She wants to let you know that she wants to get things right. She wants to give herself up, tell the police everything and make a deal with them." 

"What?!" Zulema snapped.

"If she succeeds, she'll try to discuss about your case too." 

"That will never work!" Zulema said furiously. "Not for me. And nor for her! They'd never believe her! They wouldn't believe her with Castillo being on our side not to mention trying it on our own! That's a suicide mission!" 

"She's struggling, Zulema... She's living a life which is... not a life. Not for her." 

Zulema felt really bad now. _Was everything I've done in vain?_

"Maybe if she wouldn't be alone it wouldn't be that bad." he added blinking at Zulema. "But she'd still be struggling."

"Ok... But that will never work. And then she'll end up here. And her daughter in an institute... If they find her... If not, who knows where... She must be aware of that, she's not stupid!" 

"She said that this will be your reaction." Miguel said with a bitter smile. "She has a plan B for that case. She said you might approve of that one more. Although, it's a lot crazier than the first one."

"Awesome..." Zulema nodded being frustrated. "Did you come to tell anything good?"

Miguel looked at her smiling. "You haven't changed." 

Zulema stared at him being irritated. _Then you have no idea about what is going on in my head. I don't even know who I am at this point!_ But now thinking about this, his words actually calmed her.

"Thank you. For... coming to talk to me." she said almost awkwardly.

He nodded. "I'll come again when we'll know how plan A worked." he sighed. _But apparently we all know that already..._ he thought shaking his head, but he did not say this out loud.

.

A week later he came to tell Zulema that plan A was a disaster. He also said that he had the impression that Maca was totally aware that it won't work already when she started it. But she insisted to go through with it anyway for some moral relief and to direct some attention towards Daniel, what she actually managed to achieve.

"Great... the only positive outcome of it." Zulema said bitterly. "She could have made an anonymous complaint about him..."

"Not the only positive outcome. This makes plan B easier to play out."

"What is plan B?" Zulema asked on a tired tone.

"She'll tell you about that herself... This is not the place to discuss that." he said and stood up from the table, ready to leave.

"So was this your last visit? Are you done with contemplating me as an inmate?" Zulema asked jokingly although she was feeling miserable.

Miguel looked back at her pondering. "Yes. I am done contemplating you as an inmate." he repeated giving her a once-over. "Yellow doesn't suit you. I like you more in those edgy clothes of yours." he added with a smile and left.

* * *

Zulema looked up from the book she was reading when she heard the door of her cell being opened. 

"Are you sure you don't want the other cell?" she heard Fabio's voice. 

"The one with the junkie and that psycho woman? No, thanks. I'll survive here, I guess..." Maca answered as she stepped into the cell and looked at Zulema. The brunette looked back at her silently, a serious expression on her face. 

Fabio nodded. "As you wish... Try not killing each other." he gave them both a look. "If you still want to do that at all... I can't follow your drama anymore..." he frowned then he left them on their own. 

"You have a cell all for yourself?" Maca asked being impressed as she threw her stuff on the closest bed. 

"I scared away the poor souls. But apparently I don't have one all for myself anymore." Zulema said bitterly and jumped down from the top bed she was sitting on and stared Maca in the eye, clenching her jaw like a wild animal. "Pity."

"Calm down..." Maca sighed. "Miguel said that you were not happy about my decision, but don't be ridiculous!" she wanted to touch her arm, but Zulema stepped away from her. 

"Don't be ridiculous?!" Zulema snapped. "Is this what you can come up with?!" she was breathing her words into the blonde's face. "I've risked, and I've _lost_ the most important thing to me in the process of trying to get you out of here! And what are you doing now?! Coming back! Well you must have been _really_ appreciating my sacrifice..." she pinched Maca's forehead when she finished her sentence and turned her back on her. 

Maca closed her eyes and bit into her lip. "I also lost something important to me in the process of you trying to get me out of here, Zulema..." she said quietly. 

The brunette stopped walking away from her and suddenly turned back, shaking her head. "Don't be stupid..."

"Why? Only you are allowed to do stupid things?" Maca spread her arms angrily. "Besides... that's not the only reason I did this. I realized that I really can't keep living like this. On the run, being wanted, with a child and her dad after me, the police after me... I can't, Zulema. The kid needs stability." she shook her head.

"Where is she now at all?"

"With Miguel. He lives closer to here than Saray. Poor kid... she has lived in four places in the past two months... Wonderful life I am promising to her, am I not?" she asked on a sad tone. "I have to start over." 

"Start over?" Zulema raised her eyebrows then she let out a bitter laugh. "Well you came to the perfect place to start over! This is the new America! It's full of possibilities! You can be anything you want here..." she said mockingly. "Except for a mother. Sorry... that's too mainstream for us here."

Maca was fed up with her attitude, she stepped to her and grabbed her jacket. "Stop being a bitch, Zulema! I don't even know how I managed to put up with you for so long..."

The brunette laughed, then she leaned closer to her. "If I wouldn't be sure that it is not the case, because you are not _that_ stupid, I could think that you only came back here to break up with me. What... to be honest, might not be an unwise thing to do." she added on a neutral tone.

"What?!" Maca raised her glance on her, furrowing her brows. "What the hell are you talking about?" now she was the one pushing Zulema away from herself. 

Zulema shook her head and rubbed her face as she stood down on a bed. "Nothing... But Castillo once told me that he was afraid that we'll either end up destroying the world around us or destroying ourselves. And I think right now we are doing the latter." she added quietly looking up at the blonde.

 _Yeah, we might be... even more than you think right now..._ Maca thought.

"We're spiralling further and further down, until-" Zulema continued.

Maca sat down near her grabbing her arms. "But all this is not our fault!" 

"Yeah. We are saints." Zulema said giving Maca a bitter a smile what for a moment made the blonde feel a bit more relaxed, but then Zulema freed her arms, stood up and turned away from her. "This is where goodness leads you!" she said hitting the wall with her fist. 

"Don't be so dramatic. Usually not goodness leads people here." Maca said quietly touching her shoulder as she stepped behind her. "We will retrieve our life."

Zulema shook her off herself. "Don't touch me." 

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Maca frowned. 

"I've spent two months in this shithole. And you know very well what it does to me!" 

Maca attempted to touch her again, slowly reaching her hand to Zulema's face. "I'm sorry..."

The brunette pulled away from her touch. "Don't be. It was my decision. I just hoped that it was more useful..." 

Maca swallowed. "I have a plan."

"Yeah, I know. Your famous plan B..." Zulema rolled her eyes. "How do you know it will work if your plan A didn't? Or mine didn't? We are fucked, Maca! It will be another failed attempt which will lead us further down to hell. I'm eager to find out what can be lower than this..." 

"You don't even want to hear what I am telling you! Zulema... You are seeing everything in black!"

"Yeah... Black is my colour." she said bitterly.

Maca angrily shook her head. "Do you want me to slap you or to kiss you to get you out of your annoying state?" 

"I really don't recommend you to do either right now." Zulema said as she stepped towards the other side of the cell, slowly shaking her head. "I'm talking seriously. I am not a naturally selfless person, you know that. On the contrary. And I did something with which I hurt myself. So there is no guarantee that I can keep myself from hurting _anyone_ else." Zulema closed her eyes then she opened them again looking at Maca. "And a part of me is really angry with you right now." she added quietly.

Maca hasn't felt threatened in Zulema's presence for a long time. But suddenly the cell started to feel extremely small. They had many fights, in the earlier years of them living together she often had Zulema's fingers wrapped around her throat, but she ceased to feel afraid. Their fights often ended with them in bed, suddenly solving any issues they had. But this felt different. Zulema was hurt. And what does a caged, hurt animal do? Maca shook her head. _Zulema is not an animal._ She knew her well enough to know that in moments like this sometimes she needed space, other times she needed affection. Too much space she couldn't give her in these circumstances, and Zulema has been alone for long enough already, so Maca went with the option she wanted to act on anyway. _What is the worst that can happen?_

She slowly stepped back to her, wrapping her arms around her.

"Don't-" Zulema started. 

"I missed you." Maca whispered into her neck. Then she kissed her, gently, and soon they were kissing passionately, then roughly, then messily. They didn't even realize when they started taking off each others jackets but soon they were in their undershirt. Zulema pulled away.

"I said don't!"

"Why?" 

"For your own sake. Because I am angry with you." Zulema repeated quietly. 

"Yeah, I can see that." Maca nodded. "How many times did we have angry sex? You weren't even biting now..." 

Zulema suddenly pushed Maca against the small ladder which led to the top bed. She hit her forehead into a step of it, she felt Zulema's body pressed against her back. "Don't provoke me!" she whispered into her ear, her breath warm and heavy on her skin. 

"You wouldn't hurt me." Maca whispered.

"I am not so sure about that." 

"Yeah, and that's the problem. Stop seeing yourself as a monster, Zulema. Sometimes you're acting like one, that's for sure." Maca let out a bitter laugh. "But that's not who you naturally are either."

Zulema rested her head on Maca's shoulder, then she slowly wrapped her arms around her, running her hands on her skin. At this point it could have been both loving and suffocating, Maca couldn't tell yet.

"Then what am I naturally?" Zulema asked bitterly. 

"Whatever you choose to be. Don't tell me you don't believe in free will, 'cause I'll never buy it, not from you! If you want to be a monster, be one! If you want to hurt me, hurt me!" Maca said quietly. "But I don't think that's what you want." she added.

Zulema swallowed. She now held Maca closer to herself, firmly touching her breasts, as she placed a warm kiss on her neck, then she was sneaking a hand into her pants, rubbing her fingers against her panties. Maca let out a soft moan and reached back to bury her fingers into Zulema's hair.

"Do our arguments still turn you on this much, after all those years? Or you're just this happy to see me?" Zulema asked on a far too serious tone, moving her fingers under the fabric of her panties, touching her directly now.

"Maybe both." Maca panted as she felt a finger easily slip into her. "Let me turn around. I want to touch you too." she said, trying to push Zulema away, but she didn't let her. 

"No."

 _Here we go again..._ Maca rolled her eyes. _You still can't approve of what I say twice in a row..._

"Yes." she insisted and finally managed to turn around. 

"Save your breath." Zulema smiled at her, keeping a hand on her chest, making the blonde lean back against the ladder now. "We both know that you can't focus on anything else with my hand between your legs. Not the first time around at least... But I appreciate it that you'd want to." she added with a smirk. Then she replaced the hand on her chest with her lips while she entered her again, adding another finger this time, and an unrestrained moan escaped Maca's mouth, louder than she intended too.

Zulema's other hand immediately came up, covering her mouth, the one in her pants just pressing against her now.

"Damn it, I never minded you being loud, but this is almost a public place here... So be quiet if you want me to go on." she said as she continued rubbing her, then suddenly pushed into her again, this time actually managing to go on, making Maca arch her back and throw her head back, which resulted in her hitting her head in the damned bars again, but she couldn't care less.

"Careful." Zulema whispered into her ear. "This is more like the jail sex you fantasized about, isn't it?"

Maca let out an annoyed, muffled sound, but then Zulema curled her fingers inside her, and her teeth sank into Zulema's fingers as she tried to stay quiet. Zulema hissed, but she only removed her hand from her mouth when Maca's breathing became more relaxed and the blonde wrapped her arms around her neck.

For a while they were just silently holding each other. 

"I missed you too." Zulema said as she caressed Maca's hair, who was resting her head on her chest. 

Maca straightened up, pulling Zulema with herself, both of them falling down on the mattrasse. She ended up with Zulema on top of her, but she crawled out from under her.

"Come here. All the way. On your back." Maca said. 

Zulema raised an eyebrow, but she did what Maca said. The blonde smiled, it took quite some time until they got to the point that Zulema did not oppose each and every request of hers. Zulema moved herself to the middle of the bed, laying across it, knees bent on Maca's sides, her head hanging down from the mattress. 

"I was thinking about the other way around. This will be uncomfortable." Maca said. 

Zulema wrapped a leg around her waist pushing Maca closer to herself until she could grab her undershirt. 

"Stop fucking worrying about my comfort, and worry about fucking me instead, ok?"

Maca leaned closer to her, locking their lips, moving her hands under Zulema's shirt. The brunette shook her head and stopped her.

"I am very aware of your skills and your love for affection, and I very much appreciate that too, well... usually. But it was enough foreplay for me making you tremble in my arms, so could you just get to the point this time?" she asked impatiently slightly pulling on Maca's hair. Then she placed a hand under her chin when she raised her glance on her. "Please?" she added moving her fingers down to her neck, softly squeezing it. 

Maca laughed. "I really missed you." she said then she reached into her pants, teasing her, but not doing what she wanted. 

"Inside." Zulema whispered. Maca placed her weight on her elbow and leaned above Zulema, looking at her with a frown, and also being amused. "You're annoyingly bossy. We've been doing this for years, I know what you want Zulema. You don't have to guide me." she said, then she closed the remaining distance between them, locking their lips.

"Don't play around with me." Zulema broke the kiss. "Not now. Someone can disturb us in any moment. And it's been months..."

"Wasn't your problematic guy around?" Maca raised an eyebrow. 

Zulema let out an annoyed snort. "He was. But so was my free will." she added calmly, smiling at her.

Maca blinked at her. She wouldn't have been angry with Zulema if she would have looked for some relief. This was the jail after all. Pressure, desperation, uncertainty. Other rules applied here. And besides, they still never uttered the words that they would be exclusive. They just were.

 _And yet..._ She gave her a warm smile, then she kissed again, while in the same time slowly entering her with two fingers. Zulema grabbed her hair, slightly lifting her head to whisper something into her ear, but Maca increased the speed of her movements, and Zulema's head fell back, her hands reaching to hold the side of the bed.

"I know." Maca whispered into her neck. "I've told you that I know what you want." she said continuing her movements until she sensed that Zulema's orgasm was washing over her. Then she rested her head on the brunette's chest, placing a kiss on her collarbone, caressing her side under her shirt, feeling her increased heartbeat against her skin.

Maca used to have a very different idea about what love is when she was younger. But then she was proven wrong again, and again, a man she naively thought that loved her using her and sending her to jail, then someone she never thought could love her, accepting the jail just to set her free. In the beginning they were using each other with Zulema too. In many ways, taking everything the other was willing to give if it served them. Without giving much in return. Except for cold companionship. When did they get there? That they are giving up pieces of themselves again and again, without the other expecting it at all, just to make sure that they are doing fine? Was this love? Was this selflessness? Or was Zulema right and was this indeed self destruction? Codependency?

"Don't think for a moment that I did not value what you did for me." Maca broke the silence after a while. "I just have to-"

Zulema moved her hand to Maca's hair softly caressing it. "Shut up! Later..." she said quietly resting her hand on the blonde's shoulder.

Maca lifted her hand and held the one on her shoulder, squeezing it, wanting to tell so many things with a simple touch, but in the same time she also knew that she doesn't have to.

"But let me get up from here, or I'll have a sore neck for the rest of the week..." Zulema winced, but then she heard the door of their cell opening and noticed two legs stopping in the door. She was still upside down, Maca still on top of her.

"What is this noise? I really thought you're past the stage of wanting to kill each other." Fabio said.

Zulema rolled her eyes, Maca apparently didn't intend to move.

"A gentleman knocks on the door before entering into a lady's room, doesn't he, handsome?" Zulema asked coldly.

Fabio only now noticed that the two woman weren't exactly in the position which would tell that they would have been fighting. In fact in the very moment Maca was pulling a hand out from under Zulema's undershirt.

"We're long past the stage of wanting to kill each other, Fabio." Maca said. "I could say... we found some more pleasant pastimes in the past couple of years." she said lightly and finally got up from Zulema, letting the brunette sit up too.

Fabio looked at them, a visibly shocked expression on his face.

"You've just found the missing puzzle piece, didn't you?" Zulema laughed as she brushed back the hair from her face. "It took you a while..." she sighed. "And about the noise, I've told you that the mattresses are shit but no one does anything about it..." she shrugged.

Fabio blinked at Maca, the blonde looked back at him with a self-assertive gaze, then he moved her gaze to Zulema who was still arranging her hair.

"Ok... I get it. I mean I don't understand anything anymore, but... I get... this." he said as he stepped back, and gave them another glance. "Good night." he said before he closed the door and walked away.

Zulema fell back on the pillow with a sigh. "He'll have this image burned into his retina for the rest of his life." she said being amused. "And he's the one responsible for this corridor this month, so we won't get rid of him anytime soon." she added bitterly. 

Maca leaned down near her. "He'll get rid of us very soon. I'm telling you, _we'll get out of here_. Much sooner than you think. Believe me." she whispered.

It was not easy for Zulema to believe, but in that moment she wanted to. 

"How?" she asked staring blankly at the bottom of the bed from above them. "Tell me."

.

"That's clever." Zulema nodded with appreciation when Maca finished talking. "Did you come up with it on your own?"

The blonde looked at her almost insulted. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"I'm not surprised." Zulema shook her head. "I'm just asking."

"Well, yeah... with the base of it yes. Then I got a bit of help from Saray, and Miguel, and... you."

"Me?" Zulema laughed.

"Well, you're the one with the dubious contacts. I've found an old phone of yours."

Zulema buried her face into Maca's neck, kissing her softly.

"Does me being clever turn you on?" Maca blinked down at her. "Or does me being in charge turn you on?" she raised an eyebrow.

Zulema laughed. "You know very well what turns me on." she said moving her lips to Maca's. "But in this very moment also the idea of being free turns me on." 

Then there was a knock on the door. "That's more like it, handsome." Zulema said, still lingering around Maca's lips. "Come in." she said.

Fabio noticed that they were once again far too close to each other, but he ignored that fact.

"I just wanted to tell you that we've just learned that Castillo has woken up. I thought you'd like to know." he said more to the walls of the cell than to them, and disappeared.

Zulema's expression turned into an unreadable one once again. _Fate's fucking timing! If he wakes up just a couple of days earlier, Zulema Zahir walks out through the front door as a free person! It might have taken weeks, many weeks maybe, but still... Maca's plan was..."_ she swallowed.

The blonde looked at her. "I... I understand it if you prefer to get out of here the normal way. This is your chance. It's ok if you're not coming with me. We can still meet somewhere later-"

"And we could keep running, because even if I am not wanted, people would recognize me, and thanks to that, sooner or later probably you too, even if... No. It wouldn't make sense." she shook her head. "You're right, this has to end. There's no other way to break the cycle." Zulema looked at Maca. "And we'll do it together or not at all."

Maca looked at her with disbelief. It was one thing that Zulema agreed to her plan while she had no other way out. But this way... She already risked her freedom to make sure that Maca has her own. Now she was letting go of something probably of the same importance to her for them to be together.

"Don't look at me like that!" the brunette laughed. "The Zulema Zahir people think about when they hear my name has been a feared legend for a long time already. And she's been basically on a hiatus for the past six years... They might be thinking that she has become a lazy ass! What more could I possibly want that arrogant bitch to accomplish?"

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Plan A was just a plot voucher for Maca to... *blinks at the chapter title*.


	8. Fire and ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of my Zurena series (chronologcally at least). It's been a ride! ❤
> 
> ♬ Soundtrack: [You'll know this one.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhzMOTlAvOg)  
> Because we have to finish on a familiar and lighter tune. And also because I love the song and we should associate something else than that damned scene with it. Although... I used it in a very similar one. Oops! 😬😬🙃🙃♬
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH for ALL the support you've given me along the way, it meant a lot! ❤❤❤

"Come on Damián, turn that thing off! They haven't been talking about anything else for more than a week already! It's giving me hypertension, it does no good for your heart!" the woman said and turned off the TV in the hospital room. "I'm going out to get you some fruits, do you want anything else?" 

"Some cigars. And something strong would also be good." Castillo grumbled.

The woman sighed. "Fruits it will be then. I'll be back in 20 minutes." with that she left.

When his wife closed the door behind herself, Castillo turned the TV back on. He has seen the report at least fifty times already, but he still couldn't believe it. He stared at the blurred videos taken from surveillance cameras. A red convertible car going high speed on the road. A blonde and a brunette sitting in it, if you look close enough, their faces unmistakable. Police cars chasing them. They said that the fugitives were blazing a song from the radio all along, an Italian summer hit song, almost as if they would want to be mocking their followers. But then things took an unexpected turn. Literally.

Not long before reaching the city border, the car suddenly went astray, off from the road. It ran through the grass, towards the cliffs. The police cars followed it, but the car didn't stop, not even when it reached the edge of the cliff. It flew towards the open sky, then it ascended down, and probably landed on the deep water of the sea, but the camera didn't catch that anymore. It only caught the explosion which came a couple of moments later. Experts said that the chance that anyone could have survived an explosion like that was extremely slim. According to the forensics, nothing was found, except for a couple of pieces from the car, most of the remains of it and anything else were already at the bottom of the sea. Since the day before the case was considered closed. The headline in the news said: _Most-wanted fugitives dead in the Bay of Biscay._ Online articles were talking about them as the real-life Thelma and Louise. Or were writing about Zulema Zahir's final escape. Or about the sad end of the onetime successful, peerless, hot, jewlery-robber duo.

He watched it again because it didn't make sense. _Why would they do this?_ The police cars were close, but not close enough to lead them off the road. They knew that their chance was slim, so they indeed decided to end it themselves? Or was there something wrong with the car? Were they fighting? Were they hurt?

In a way he felt guilty that it happened. _But I couldn't do anything to prevent this, damn it!_

_\- - - Ten days earlier - - -  
_

Hierro stepped near Zulema, the brunette was smoking, in her usual spot in the courtyard.

"You still haven't told me what your man out there is like. He must be something if you're that... faithful to him." 

"There's no man out there for me anymore." Zulema said coldly. "He realized that he doesn't like me in yellow and turned his back on me." she shrugged. Then she slowly blew out the smoke and turned towards him. "Are you still willing to do something for me?"

"Do I get something out of it?" he asked sharply raising an eyebrow.

 _"_ Maybe." Zulema answered. "If I get what I want."

"And what do you want this time?" he rolled his eyes.

"To get out of here." she said bluntly.

He laughed in her face. "No. I won't help you with that. I'm sorry." he shook his head. "Are you planning something again?"

"I am always planning something. But if you're not in, then I can flush my plans down the toilet... Pity, they were good plans." Zulema sighed.

"Why would I help you leave at all?" Hierro looked at her being amused. "Isn't all of our little affair based around the fact that I like you in handcuffs?" 

Zulema looked up at him pouting, with a theatrically sad expression. "See? This is why we would have never worked... You like me on leash." she said with a grimace as she stood up. "But I like it the other way around."

Then she grabbed his jacket and angrily kissed him. He didn't even pull away, not instantly, her hands had the time to roam over his body, his shirt, his belt, over his pockets... 

Then he finally pushed her away. "There are people around us!"

"So what?" Zulema raised her eyebrows. _I got what I wanted._ "I'm not acting on each and every animalistic instinct of mine, but I'm far from being a prude." she grinned as she took some steps backwards, slowly walking away, then she winked at him and disappeared behind a door.

.

"Finally! What took you so long?" Maca looked at Zulema nervously when she stepped into the corridor.

"He's not a bad kisser." the brunette said offhandedly as she kept walking forward.

The blonde made a grimace.

"Don't be so grumpy." Zulema laughed. "Originally you wanted to snog Fabio for these, but we kind of burned that bridge. Fortunately the two are not drinking buddies... Here they are... I went from a leading jewlery-robber to a bitchy pickpocket..." Zulema sighed as she briefly lifted a set of keys in front of Maca. "Let's go, it's just a matter of time until he realizes that I double-crossed him and he presses the panic button."

They ran towards the side of the building where the offices were, trying to avoid people. 

"What are you doing here?" a woman looked suspiciously at them when they weren't fast enough to get out of her sight. 

"Trying to make a complaint. Where is the principal?" Maca said.

"She already left. Come back tomorrow or transmit your complaints through a guard. Don't hang around here. It's not allowed. You should know... How did you even get into this wing?"

"The door was open... Sorry... We didn't know..." Maca stuttered.

"Get out." the woman said and walked away.

They nodded. They slowly started walking back until the woman disappeared behind the corner, then they turned around and went into the opposite direction towards the offices.

"Which one? You're the one with the blueprint in your head." Maca looked at Zulema.

"Doesn't matter. All of these on the left have windows towards the employee's entrance. It just has to be empty." she opened a door of the first office. "Come!"

Zulema stepped to the window. "Perfect. Quickly!" 

Maca climbed out through the window. Zulema was about to follow her when Hierro entered the office. "You manipulative bitch!" 

Zulema turned around, looking at the guard. "Hey!" she smiled at him. She took the access card opening the front door off the key-chain. "Here, take them!" she threw the rest of the keys and cards back to Hierro. "If they realize that a prisoner stole all of those from you, you'll be in trouble. You'll have to find some excuse for this one though." she lifted the card in her hand, giving him a regretful smile and was about to climb out through the window.

"Zulema, this won't work!" Hierro said. Zulema stopped once again. "I know how this works. Even if I don't press the panic button, the guards from the rooftop will notice you and, a bit later, but-."

"You're worried? You want to help now?" Zulema laughed and took a step back to him.

"No. I don't want to help. I am just warning you. If they notice you, a bit later, but you'll have four police cars running after you with or without my intervention. And if you won't stop until you reach the entrance to the city, they'll shoot."

"Just four? Why not eight?" Zulema spread her arms pouting. "We have a reputation."

Hierro looked at her frowning. "You'll either end up in handcuffs or with a bullet in your back. If you go out here, you have no chance! If you are running you maybe have one minute. If you get into a car maybe five. But it ends the same way..."

Zulema bit into her lip. "I'll try though. And well... to be honest, out of these two alternatives, I prefer the latter." she shrugged. "I've told you that I am tired..." she smiled at him. "So press the panic button, my dear, save your credibility." she added calmly and stepped even closer to him. "But if it's a suicide mission anyway, just give us ten more seconds before you do it." she said quietly. "To be able to get a taste of freedom on the highway. Or the illusion of it at least. One last time." she whispered, her lips almost touching his now. "And let us go out with a bang!" she said even more quietly and locked her lips with his. "It's not too much to ask, is it?" she looked up at him, then she turned around and stepped back to the window. The man looked at her being perplexed. "It was a pleasure to know you." Zulema blew him a kiss, then she jumped out through the window. 

Hierro stared after her. He had no idea which of his actions would help or hurt them. _O_ _ne_. He was familiar with Zulema's mind games, but he never understood by what rules she's playing. Nor with what aim. _Two._ He didn't even know what he would have done if he knew. _Three._ Maybe he was glad that he didn't know it. _Four._ The blonde was already nervously waiting by the gate. _Five._ He saw as Zulema caught up with her, and used his card to open it. Then she threw it on the ground. _Six._ Then they were running. _Seven._ Running towards a red car parked at the side of the main road. _Eight._ It was empty, but it apparently had a key left in it. _Nine._ Because they rolled off from the side of the road, suddenly a low bass hitting his ears as they turned on the radio. _You bitch, what are you doing?! You actually want to be noticed?  
_

Then he pressed the panic button and reached to his phone.

Another ten seconds later six police cars were after them.

_\- - - Ten days later - - -  
_

_I shouldn't feel guilt... I did more than I should have done anyway... I just started to care about those reckless daughters of bitches..._

There was a knock on the door of Castillo's hospital room and a man peeked in. "Hello! Inspector Castillo?" a man stepped in. 

"Hello! Do I know you?" the older man frowned.

"Indirectly. But it doesn't matter. I was just asked to hand this to you." he gave him an envelope. "I wish you a speedy recovery!" he said.

Castillo opened the envelope. It contained a photo, about a beach, like any other. On the backside just a couple of words. _"Feel better, champ! No more stress and less caffeine, old man! XXX"_

"Hey, wait!" Castillo turned towards the man. "Who is this from? They forgot to sign it..."

The man looked back at him smiling. "No, they did not forget anything. Have a good afternoon!" 

Castillo blinked at the picture again. No signature. Then he turned it around. A random beach. Nothing specific. Just the sand, the sea and the sky. Some drinks placed on the ground. _Who sends a photograph like this to anyone?_

He put it down and looked back at the TV. Still the same clips from the unsuccessful escape-attempt were shown. _Nothing makes sense nowadays..._

He stared at the screen. That turn taken off the road was so harsh. _It does look like a deliberate move._ The police was convinced that it was a desperate suicidal idea. _Well it looks like one.._. But he still couldn't believe his eyes. He knew them. _Unless... It was deliberate..._ _But what if... it wasn't led by a death drive?_

Then he picked up the photograph again. It had a timestamp on it. It said that it was taken four days ago. He looked more attentively at the details. The drinks were two cocktails, a Long Island Iced Tea and a Tequila Sunrise most likely, and also an orange juice near them. And there was also a dog's bowl, visible in the distance.

He put the photo down once again. Then he turned off the TV.

And he started laughing.

_\- - - Ten days earlier - - -_

_"_ That was damn close!" Zulema was catching her breath after they swam to the side of the cliff. The waves caused by the explosion made it aggressively easier to them. They could still feel the warmth of it in the air. "That idiot could have killed us!" 

"He knew what he was doing." Maca sighed impatiently.

"He knew what he was doing?! He's an office worker, damn it!" Zulema kept whining. "I am not afraid of death. But I'd rather not die being blown up by my clumsy almost-ex! And in the first place, I am not planning to die _now,_ when _-"_

Maca stepped to her and grabbed her shoulder.

"Zulema... we didn't die. Not really. We are very much alive!" she laughed. " _And free!"_

Zulema blinked at her. "Yeah. Right." she nodded. Then she suddenly wrapped Maca in a tight hug. They didn't know whether the salty taste they felt in their mouths was thanks to the sea water, or their tears.

"Let's go! Quickly, towards those caves, they could see us..." Maca said when they let go of each other.

After an hour of climbing in the shadows of the rocks they arrived to a hiking road. 

Maca grabbed Zulema's arm. "Ten more minutes, and we'll be by the car." she said smiling. "We've made it!" 

.

"Since when are you an explosives-expert?" Zulema turned towards Miguel when they got into the car. They've changed their clothes, and got rid of the yellow ones.

"Since I was 23, and in the army during the war." he said bitterly. "Not a period of my life I am proud of... I killed people. Only to realize later that I was fighting on the wrong side. If there is a good side in war at all..."

"How come I didn't know about that?" Zulema frowned.

"Well..." Miguel blinked at her smiling. "I look at it as a closed chapter of my life. And thank God, you never cared about my past either." he added laughing. "You saw me as the fed up, hard working divorced man who was bored of his dull everyday life, and... I preferred to be just that."

Zulema swallowed, uncomfortably.

"So I am really not the one to judge people based on their past." Miguel continued. "I wasn't blind regarding your baggage, Zulema, I just know that carrying it is already bad enough, so why would I have wanted to bring it into the present?"

Zulema didn't know what to say. She always thought that the guy could never understand her, and yet... he did. She changed the subject. 

"You've risked a lot with helping us. You could have said no."

The man smiled at her. "I did not end up working with you because I don't crave a bit of adrenaline by now and then." he shrugged. "It's nothing personal." he added after a while. 

"Oh... good." Zulema nodded and looked into the side-mirror, catching Maca's amused gaze.

"And we're here..." Miguel said as he slowed down in front of the airport. "My son, David must be here already with your daughter and the luggages you've prepared." he turned towards Maca. "If he asks anything, I've told him that you were at a conference in the nearby city and your car broke down in the middle of the road."

"Thank you! For everything." Zulema said when they got out of the car and hugged him. 

"Since when are you a huggy person?" he asked being surprised.

"Maybe I've never been a not-huggy one. Maybe I just accidentally packed that part of me in the baggage, you know..." she shrugged. 

Miguel laughed, then he turned towarsds the blonde.

"Um...Thanks!" Maca reached out her hand towards him.

"Oh come on... We've spent a month together planning this thing, can't we share a hug too?" he asked. 

Maca rolled her eyes laughing, then they hugged each other. Awkwardly, but genuinely. 

"Here, your new IDs and all your credit cards." he handed an envelope to Zulema. 

She took out the new IDs and turned towards Maca snorting. "Are you kidding me?" 

* * *

"Smith?" Zulema asked with a grimace looking at their IDs. "You really tried being creative with choosing a surname..." she sighed then she laid back on the sand looking up at the clear blue sky listening to the sound of the waves. "The Smiths with their own private beach. Well... almost private...." she tilted her head and blinked towards the man who was convincing her daughter to join him in the water. 

_We had to convince Punkin to get out of it!_

"It doesn't hurt to blend in." Maca shrugged. "Be grateful that I put some effort into the first names."

"Yeah, you did." Zulema laughed. "Aurora and Layla. You basically named us dawn and night. And are we... sisters now or what? Hard to believe..." she said on a mocking tone, but being fully conscious that that was not what Maca had on her mind.

"Yeah... that's not very believable... The rest of the papers are not done yet, we can be anything. You can even change your name if you don't want it." Maca said lightly and then she turned on her side and looked at Zulema. "But... I was thinking.... We've been playing house for almost a decade now.... Would it be too soon to fetch ourselves some fake marriage papers?" she asked offhandedly, but with a smile and attentive to catch the brunette's reaction. 

Zulema laughed as she threw the IDs on the sand. "We can be anything... I don't mind. These are just formalities anyway. It's not like I'll start calling you Rory or honey from now on. Heavens... I'd rather stick to _Pu_ _ta Rubia_ then, if we really want some change, that's more like you..."

"Right." Maca coughed. it was absurd, after everything they've been through, but she felt a tiny bit insecure. It was a stupid thing, and it didn't change anything, but still... Zulema's reaction wasn't exactly what she hoped for.

The brunette blinked at her from the corner of her eye. "You don't want us to suddenly start wearing rings, are you?"

"Look what I found!" Hope ran towards them holding a seashell-necklace, interrupting them. "It's so pretty! Can I keep it?"

"Where have you found that?" Maca frowned. 

"In that backpack right there." she pointed towards the spot of their neighbour's.

"Sweetie..." Maca looked at her alarmed. "This most likely belongs to that little girl. Go and put it back! It's not a nice thing to just take things out of other's backpacks! You shouldn't do that." 

Zulema laughed and looked up at the kid. "If you want to steal, Punkin, steal from rich assholes, not girls like yourself." she said smiling. Maca hit her with her elbow. "And there's a trick." Zulema continued. "Steal stuff which is valorous, but which you don't want to keep." she smirked.

The girl blinked at her being puzzled. Maca gave Zulema an angry look. 

"Go sweetie, put it back." she said, and the girl left. Scorpius ran after her too, he's been in the water until now.

"Stop giving her lectures!" Maca said. "You're awful at them..." she sighed. "I'm actually surprised that you made the effort to bring the dog with us." she added after a while.

"He's Scorpius. Not "the dog"." Zulema said being irritated. "It's been years and he still hasn't grown on you?" 

"He has grown on me..." Maca said. "I just find the name you've given him... pretensious." 

"Not more than the ones you've chosen for us..." Zulema shrugged. "And he's Punkin's best friend. We're not going to teach her that if the circumstances separate her from the ones she cares about, she's supposed to leave them behind, are we?" 

Maca looked at her smiling. "You know... these kind of lectures you can give her. But not that previous one!" she added firmly.

"What was the problem with the other one?" Zulema asked. "That was a good advice too!"

Maca sighed. "You're hopeless..."

"Good morning!" a man stepped near them. It was their neigbour.

"You've just moved here, right?" he asked cheerfully. "I'm Francisk. Nice to meet you! And this is Markus, my brother. He's just visiting. He lives in Spain." he looked towards the other man who caught up with him now.

"Oh! I always wanted to visit Spain! Never had the chance..." Zulema said with a sad smile. "Layla." she said smiling and shook hand with the men. 

"Rory." Maca squeezed their hands too. 

"Are you a single mother?" Francisk asked. "I'm a single father, we probably have a lot to talk about." he gave the blonde a warm smile.

"Uhm, actually..." Maca started.

"We're married." Zulema said firmly with a stiff smirk on her face.

"Oh. That's cool!" Francisk nodded awkwardly.

"Wait.." the brother named Markus finally spoke up too, looking at Zulema. "You look like... like that woman from the news! What a coincidence! The one who... died last week." 

"That Suleima Zachir? If I'm spelling her name correctly..." Zulema asked coldly. "Yeah, I know... people keep telling me. Frustrating... What an awful wench..." she shook her head.

"Yeah, you're much prettier." Markus smiled at her. "And you're not wearing such a dark makeup. I don't even think it would suit you." he said giving Zulema a once-over. She was wearing a simple, white beach-dress above a black swimsuit, her hair in a messy low bun, wearing barely any make-up. "But I kind of admired her. I mean she was bad." he nodded. "But also _good..."_ he said pensively. "Clever, resourceful, determined..."

"....selfish, egoistical, ruthless. Pretty much a psychopath." Zulema interrupted him. "Just don't make a role model out of her, gosh..." she made a grimace.

"Of course not. I'm not a psychopath, don't worry." Markus said seriously.

"Oh well... feel free to pass by for a drink sometime." Francisk said smiling and waved them goodbye.

Maca laughed when they disappeared. "Well... I don't think that arrogant bitch is really gone. Zulema Zahir will never die." she said with a smile. "But who would have thought that you have fans out there?"

"Must be some sick people..." Zulema sighed as she lifted her glass and took a sip from her cocktail.

"Well... That makes me the sickest of them all then. Maca smirked as she put her sunglasses on and layed back on the sand again.

"The single dad seemed to have the hots for you, though. I won't be the one telling you to cover yourself, we're not in Morocco, you can do whatever you want, but that red bikini might have also played a role in that." Zulema said neutrally.

"Oh shut up! By the way, there is a jewlery store near the park. Quite... _accessible."_ Maca grinned.

"Are you serious?!" Zulema laughed. "I thought I'll be the one who will crave some action first. But I thought even I would be able to hold myself back for a bit longer...."

"Well... Yes, we should keep quiet for a while. But we'll get bored at one point or another." she shrugged.

"Good..." Zulema nodded. "Then if you think that the advice I gave Punkin was bad, if we find some fancy rings we can keep them." she said offhandedly as she put her sunglasses on too. "For a souvenir of course, not for wearing them."

Maca laughed. "That's ok. I wouldn't have wanted us to wear rings anyway. That would be ridiculous! We are free after all. More free than we've ever been." she said looking at the sky.

"Yes. We are free." Zulema agreed tilting her head and smiled at her. "Free together." she added turning her gaze towards the sky too, a happy smile on her face.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Random notes:_  
>  *I said that I would never kill Zulema. Oops, I kind of did that too... 😅  
> *At one point I didn't think I'll actually be able to come up with a ff-worthy, relatively believable, second escape plan, I was totally stuck. Then this just formed itself in my mind.  
> *I had to look up Castillo's first name. I was almost convinced we never heard it, and initially I named him Roberto.  
> *I don't feel exactly at home writing action scenes, so bear with me... I am the dialogue based writer for now, I guess.  
> *I have a weakness for Zulema with Hierro. They could be a good _bad_ romance!  
> *I was thinking that maybe it's frustrating to add that Markus guy (almost) recognizing Zulema in the final scene, but I reaaally wanted Zulema to talk about herself like that, so I kept it. And besides... someone might actually recognize them sooner or later... _And then the drama continues!_
> 
> \-----
> 
>  _Actual notes:_  
>  I am not saying never, because you know me... but I really think that this was my last long(er) fic, one with a detailed plot. I've written about Zurena in more than 100k words, I think I should stop or at least slow down somewhere. It's been a ride! ♥♥♥  
> (But future random one-shots once in a while? Who knows?)
> 
> THANK YOU again for reading and for all the lovely feedback in these past months! It made me REALLY happy! ♥️♥♥
> 
> 🌴🌊🌊🍹🍸🌊🌊🌴  
> ~ shamendalie


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